


Cat Among the Pigeons

by Vinelle



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Dystopia, Alternate Universe - Psycho-Pass, Ensemble Cast, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-11
Updated: 2019-02-10
Packaged: 2019-03-03 12:36:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 32,432
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13341411
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vinelle/pseuds/Vinelle
Summary: Newbie Auror Lily Evans wasn’t quite sure what she expected from her career as a crime fighter in a society free of crime, but fighting artistic teens, German conspirators and multiplying hot guys was not it. A dystopian Harry Potter AU, as inspired by Psycho-Pass. Genre and character tags may change.





	1. A Murder is Announced

**Author's Note:**

> To those who read the summary and came here hoping to see the glorious Akane Tsunemori in action or else are wondering if this is something they’re going to be able to follow, be disappointed/worry not. This is no crossover, just me applying the concept and many of the fantastic storylines of Psycho-Pass to the Harry Potter universe. Consider it a tribute to the show (and one that will grow ever less recognizable as we get further into it at that).
> 
> Also, apologies, I have had to grievously disrespect the timeline in order to make the characters more evenly aged. Gilderoy Lockhart was apparently born in 1964 and that would make him a Hogwarts student, so we’ll add ten years to that. I would prefer Tom Riddle to be a bit younger (for more than aesthetic reasons, I am not entirely shallow) and McGonagall has to be his age, so they are both anno 1949. Bellatrix, too, should be younger for characterization reasons, so consider her born in 1957. People not yet born (Luna Lovegood) are strapping teens. I’m not happy about doing this, but hey, this is a dystopian anime-inspired AU, there are going to be a few artistic liberties. All in the name of fun.

_They must've realized it the moment they saw each other. That long before they had met, this destiny awaited them. They were not like ships passing in the night._

_«Psycho-Pass»,_ Gen Urobuchi

* * *

_September 12th, 1979_

Diagon Alley was in chaos.

Not that it would have been the paragon of order and efficiency on any other day, but on this particular Tuesday there was pandemonium. There were people rushing in every direction, aimless but stressed and not sure where they had last seen their families, and the sheer noise of it all was enough to make one dizzy.

Dementors had been called in to restore order, and they were hard at work. They flushed out the stores that still had people in them and cut into the crowd with precision, separating the civilians into manageable groups and escorting them out of the Alley.

Evacuation was protocol for crisis situations such as this one: stress levels always ran high, and ever since ALBUS had started recording people becoming criminals merely by being close to other criminals the Ministry had been more insistent on evacuations and quarantines than ever.

In the center of all the commotion one shop remained untouched by the scouting dementors, and the man standing outside it, stoic and stern, was left undisturbed. He was meant to be there: as soon as all the civilians had been evacuated and the dementors had vacated the premises it would be his job, as an auror, to go inside and make the arrest.

His and one other.

He glanced down at his watch in irritation. The recruit should have been there by now.

A young woman burst forth from out of the thinning crowd then, and she hurried towards him.

«Sorry I'm late, I- Severus! What- you're an  _auror_?» Lily Evans stared at him in shock, exhaustion forgotten for a second as she stared at him in astonishment. Then she started heaving for breath again, bending over a little. «Sorry,» she said again, almost wheezing.

Severus stared back at her, just as shocked. «Yes,» he said, and blinked.

She straightened and grinned at him. She looked genuinely happy to see him, he marveled. «It's great to see you, Sev,» she said.

For a moment his heart felt like it had just been warmed up by the power of a dozen rainbows, and he wanted nothing more than to smile back at her like an idiot and say something sappy, but he managed to compose himself. He pointed to  _Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions_. «We've got a job to do,» he said instead.

Lily blinked. «Of course. I'm sorry I was late, the apparition wards…»

He waved a hand. «It's fine, I take it you haven't been informed about the breakpoint. And we'll have to wait a bit, anyway.» He gestured towards the civilians, of which there still remained a few dozen.

She frowned at «breakpoint», but didn't ask. «What are we to do when they're all gone, then? And do we know who's in there?»

«We wait for the enforcers, they'll do the heavy lifting. It's great to see you too, by the way,» he replied, blushing ever so slightly at that last part.

She blinked. «Yes. Yes, it is, quite. Enforcers?»

The last of the civilians filed out through the portal to  _The Leaky Cauldron_  and the Dementors bled away into the shadows. Within seconds, Lily and Severus were completely alone in the street.

Rather than replying, Severus pulled out a small, intricate-looking device. It reminded Lily vaguely of a sextant, only there were wheels and it was ticking. He ignored the more intimidating aspects of it, though, and spoke directly into a tiny microphone tucked away near the top: « _Activate_ », he enunciated slowly.

Then he stepped back. Lily opened her mouth, but did not have the time to ask the question before it was answered by the blue light of a portkey erupting where Severus had stood. She stepped back.

Four people, two women and two men, fell out of the light. Lily blinked at them: like herself and Severus they were clad in Ministry uniforms, but theirs were a discreet grey, and they had no badges.

She was surprised to recognize one of the two women as Bellatrix Black, Sirius' cousin and a Slytherin prefect when she was still in school and, more notably, the wealthy daughter of one of Britain's most prominent wizarding families who had been disowned when her Delinquency Estimate declared her a criminal two years earlier. Her husband had even divorced her (not that that was uncommon, as spouses of irredeemable criminals were considered at high risk of becoming criminals themselves and thus strongly encouraged by ALBUS to terminate the commitment). The scandal had been on everyone's lips that Christmas.

The two women made eye contact, and any doubt as to whether Black knew who she was disappeared when her mouth curled disgustedly at the sight of Lily. «You're the new auror,» she stated, her tone strangely bitter.

«I am,» Lily said.

The other three looked at her in curiosity. The second woman, a buxom blonde with stiff corkscrew hair and green glasses, was a complete stranger to Lily, as was the tall dark-haired man. They were young still however, they could be no more than thirty, but she would guess that they had both graduated Hogwarts before she started attending it. The last man, also blond, was a bit younger and looked vaguely familiar, but she could not place him.

One thing she knew for certain about them, though, not just from what she knew of Bellatrix, but from something in the way they carried themselves, something intrinsically  _there_ : these four people were criminals.

She felt a small shiver steal up her spine.

Severus walked up to stand next to her, and she noticed that he angled his body ever so slightly towards the four Enforcers, making his stance slightly hostile. She caught an amused twitch in the dark-haired man's eyebrow. «Enforcers,» he said in a loud voice. «This is Lily Evans, your new Auror. She is new, but you will respect and obey her as you do me.» He did not wait for any acknowledgement of this order, but turned towards Lily and, in a vaguely reassuring voice, began explaining. «Enforcers are criminals we use to do the, ah,  _grittier_  work. They're very useful, but harmless to us - in order to become an Enforcer they all had to make an Unbreakable Wow never to disobey or be disloyal to their assigned Aurors, and even without that there are restrictions that keep them from committing any actual crimes.»

Lily felt as if she'd just been informed that they would be fighting crime with the power of organized dance numbers. «How come I've never heard of this?»

The blonde woman snickered. «We're ALBUS' dirty little secret,» she said, and winked at Lily. «I'm Rita Skeeter, by the way. Pleasure.»

Lily nodded back at her. «Pleasure,» she replied, not sure what else to say.

«I'm sure you remember Bellatrix Black,» Severus said, and there might have been something snide in his voice then, certainly the woman gave him a filthy look, «and that's Gilderoy Lockhart,» the blond man smiled at her, and she realized that she'd seen him in Marlene's Witch Weekly cutouts, «and Tom Riddle.» The dark-haired man looked up at her, and for a moment she had a sensation like he was fixing her with gaze, suffocating yet swift like a flash of light reflected in a mirror.

Then he gave her a nod, and only a second had passed.

She swallowed a grimace, and smiled to the group: «It's very nice to meet you,» she said. More nods from Lockhart and Skeeter, so she nodded a little as well.

They stood there staring at one another, all six, for about a moment, until a sudden shriek and the sound of something breaking resounded from somewhere inside Madam Malkin's. A second later alarms started howling all over the streets: Lily yelped at the sheer  _loudness_  of it.

«I guess it's time we start doing our actual jobs,» Riddle muttered, earning himself several glares, though it was a wonder anyone had even heard him over the screaming alarms.

«Shut up, Riddle! Bugger, he must've moved,» Severus said, and ran towards the building.

«He?» Skeeter inquired, trailing after Snape. «So we know it's a he?»

Lockhart followed up with an inquiry of his own. «So, what's the plan?»

Lily saw Black smirk and mutter something to Riddle, though he appeared to be concentrating on something else. She brought out her wand and pointed it at the closest siren. « _Deactivate_ ,» she said, and was pleased to find that it worked right away. Blessed silence reigned once more.

Severus, who had been pacing, stopped to stare at her. «Right. Thanks, Lily,» he said. Then, still addressing only her, he continued. « _Homenum Revelio_ tells me that there's no one in the building any more, but he's got to be close. Or she.» he heightened his voice to address the rest of the team, «All we know about this criminal is that they tried to purchase a set of robes when the clerk scanned them and found their coefficient was violet at 112, ALBUS alerted itself.»

«Do we know what became of the other people in the shop? The clerk?» Lily asked.

Severus shook his head no. «It had already been evacuated when I arrived. I didn't even see Madam Malkin.»

«Should we split up, then?» she asked.

Severus pressed his lips together, looking unhappy. «It would be better. I'll go in after him, with Lockhart, Black and Riddle. Skeeter, you and Lily will guard the exit.»

«Aren't there other exits?» Lily pondered.

Snape glared. «Yes, but- I'll explain later, alright? Wait, Riddle, do you even know the area?»

Riddle glared at him, looking insulted, but did not reply.

Severus glared back at him and looked about to say something before his eyes widened in realization. «Right. No need to shut up anymore, answer the question.»

« _Thank_  you. And yes, of course I know the area,» Riddle snapped.

«Right, then,» Severus said, leading the quartet towards Knockturn Alley. «We'll have to split up further, I'll take Black along the main street…» they turned a corner and disappeared.

Lily and Skeeter were left standing on the very empty street in front of the very empty shop.

How about that.

«Shouldn't we move towards the  _Cauldron_?» Skeeter asked.

«The criminal has had almost half an hour to think, he's got to know that we'll be guarding the main exit. Maybe Se- Snape can flush him out, but there would still be other exits he can use. Or he could just hide until we have to reopen the street,» Lily replied, though she did not feel very sure of herself. The banality breeding desperation  _had_  been one of the most frequently repeated lessons during her Auror training, even if she struggled to put her faith in it.

«But those other exits are all hidden, few people know about them. I didn't know any until I became an Enforcer. And ALBUS is patient, we can wait him out.» Skeeter countered, though she didn't seem all that sure either.

Lily pressed her lips together, but said nothing. She wished Severus had shared his reasons.

For lack of a better plan the two women moved to stand where they had been told, a few feet apart so that they could see as much of the Alley as possible.

The silence was absolute, sinisterly so: the street had always, from the day Lily first laid eyes upon it, been filled with people, no matter the hour, day or weather. To see it void of people was almost like looking at a photograph: it looked just like the real thing, but it was no more Diagon Alley than it would have been if you removed all the buildings.

She shifted her weight from one leg to the other, and even that felt  _loud_  in this silence.

She had not known quite what to expect as a crime fighter in a society free of crime but this waiting around had not been it. She refused to feel bored, but there was something about having the adrenaline that had pumped in her body dwindle down to nothing that made her feel like she was wasting her time. Disappointed, perhaps.

She dared a look over at Skeeter. The woman seemed unbothered by the silence and was squinting into store windows. Of course: she had to have been in countless evacuated areas before. Lily looked over the woman's grey uniform again.

«How do you do your shopping?» she inquired, and almost flinched at how much her voice was like a shout against the utter silence of Diagon Alley.

Skeeter shrugged. «I don't. We have these uniforms, of course, then there's casual robes, accessories…» she looked heavenwards in an attempt to jog her memory. «And night clothes and toiletries, of course» she concluded. «The Department acquires these things for us.»

Lily stared at her. «What about your personal belongings?» ALBUS confiscated all of a criminal's belongings, safekeeping them until the criminal was either rehabilitated or he or she had died, in which case their next of kin got to inherit. It was not a popular measure but had always seemed like the lesser evil to Lily, as someone imprisoned would have no use of their property anyway and this way they would have something to come back to, but Enforcers fell between two chairs.

The Skeeter shrugged again. «Well, yes, we get them back, but it's a bit depressing. I won't be able to replace things like my nail polish when I've used it all up, you know? Bella's still saving her things, though,» she said.

Lily wasn't quite sure what to say to that.

Silence reigned again for a few moments. Lily could feel the other woman's eyes on her, and felt slightly uncomfortable. She'd never been near a criminal before.

Except for Remus.

«Why'd you become an Auror?» Skeeter suddenly asked.

Lily blinked. «Hm? Oh- I don't know, it's… why not, I mean.»

Skeeter raised an eyebrow at her. «Why not?»

Lily hmm-ed. «I guess ALBUS intrigues me.»

Skeeter continued staring at her.

«I don't really have a specific reason,» Lily finally admitted, and it felt fairly truthful. Indeed her choice remained something of a mystery to her, even now.

Skeeter seemed to accept that answer, or else she realized that she was not going to get any others from Lily, because she did not press the matter (although there remained a spark of curiosity in her eyes).

Again the two women were silent, and Lily found herself hoping the other Enforcers would be easier to talk to. Then, remembering Bellatrix Black's disdainful glare and Riddle's combination of creepy and disinterested, she found herself doubtful of that. The blond man had not seemed like her type either.

Perhaps it was just as well - these people did not seem quite the types to enjoy game nights and switcheroo duels.

It was in that moment that a thunder tore into the air, loud enough that both women took a step back. Lily looked up reflexively, but no, the sky was clear, and it had not come from there.

«Merlin, was that an  _explosion_?» Skeeter yelled, and grabbed her arm.

She didn't answer, just looked at the street in front of her helplessly. It had come from someplace between Knockturn Alley or Gringotts, or so she thought, but there was nothing she or Skeeter could do about it without endangering themselves.

She turned to the other woman. «Go get help,» she said.

Skeeter shook her head frantically. «I can't, shit, you don't know this…» She started speaking very quickly. «We have restrictions against Apparition and Floo. You saw the portkey! And oh, there's Anti-Apparition wards up anyway, you can't leave either. Oh,  _Merlin_ …» she whined.

Lily wanted to swear. She could leave through  _The Leaky Cauldron_ , but that would mean leaving Skeeter alone, and assuming the worst, that the explosion had incapacitated Severus' entire team, she would be leaving the woman as the sole thing standing between the criminal they were chasing and freedom. But if she didn't, if she and Skeeter just stood there while their colleagues were in need of medical attention and at the mercy of a dangerous criminal…

She was woefully unprepared for this.

«I think we're just going to have to wait,» was her eventual conclusion, to Skeeter's visible relief. Better to protect the one she had her eyes on.

And wait they did, for several agonizing minutes, until the sound of a crash followed by a man's shout alerted them to the passage between  _Eeylops Owl Emporium_  and a teashop, some two hundred yards away. Seconds later two masked people, one man and one woman by the looks of it, came dashing out. They spun on their heels and charged directly for Lily and Skeeter, or more specifically the brick portal to the  _Cauldron_  behind them.

«Stop!» Lily shouted at the same time as Skeeter shot a « _Peccatamostra_!» at the man. The number 178 floated in purple digits above the man's head. Lily blanched at the high number, but took note of the color.  _Dread_. Perhaps he could be talked down.

But for the moment the duo was charging towards them, and the man had reached a hand into his pocket. Lily's eyes widened and she cast a shield charm at the same time as Skeeter yelled « _Peccatamostra_!» again, this time aiming for the woman.

46, all white digits.

Lily's jaw fell, and she could hear Skeeter gasp. How could it be below 100?

As if on cue, Tom Riddle appeared dashing out from that same street, yelling «Imperio!» He picked up speed, sprinting faster, even, than the criminals. Criminal. Lily didn't understand. «She's under the imperius!» he yelled again, breathlessly.

 _Bugger_.

The man took advantage of her distraction, and threw something small and metallic at her feet, right through the shield charm while the woman spun and threw a curse at Riddle, who threw himself at the ground to dodge it. «Get away!» he shouted to Lily, who felt her heart turn to ice as she recognized the object at her feet as a grenade.

She grabbed Skeeter, and after a second they had Apparated to Riddle's side. He picked himself up off the ground, and together they watched as the grenade detonated in the street only a second after that, filling the street with smoke. Even the criminals flinched at the explosion and looped around it, but then they were running straight towards the portal again.

« _Reducto_!» screamed Riddle, and Lily and Skeeter watched in shock as the brick above the portal to the Cauldron cracked and fell. The man immediately fell to his knees to shift away the rubble in panic, while the woman spun and shot a stunner at them, hitting Skeeter, who fell with a soft «oof». Riddle charged towards them again regardless.

Something occurred to Lily, even as she took off to follow the unreasonably quick Riddle.

« _Finite incantatem_!»

The woman froze before she would have cursed one of them, and started blinking. «What-»

«Oh, no, no, no, Alice, don't- oh no,» the criminal said, pausing with his rubble.

The woman was in a state of shock. «Arthur,  _what_ -»

The man hit her with a stunner and put up a shield charm just in time to have Riddle crash into it. Riddle was not to be stopped, however: in one graceful flick of his hand the shield dissipated again, and in another the man was disarmed, with the tip of Riddle's wand just a bit too close to his face to be entirely professional, just as Lily caught up with them.

The criminal raised his hands, the left one still holding a brick, above his head.

Lily did away with the mask with a nonverbal gesture, and it flew into the remaining brick behind the man, revealing a fairly young red-headed man with a look on his face like he was watching something horrible unfold.

«Arthur Weasley, isn't it?» Riddle said after a second of inspecting the man. Lily shot him a quick, questioning glance.

Upon being identified the man's face crumpled even further, and despite herself Lily felt a sudden compassion for the man. «Please,» he said, and his voice was barely even there, «I have children. My wife is pregnant.»

Riddle looked about to say something, but Lily spoke before him. «I'm afraid your fate is up to ALBUS, not us,» she said almost softly, and got a sudden awkward feeling like she could  _feel_  Riddle's disapproval of her soft tone. And her words did not seem to make the man feel any better, he only hunched further in on himself.

« _Peccatamostra_ ,» she said, and the number 204 floated briefly above the man's head in green digits mixed in with purple. Anger and dread, then. She stared at the man. «You're worse than before,» she said incredulously. «How-»

«Drop the brick,» Riddle said quietly. The man's eyes widened, and Lily realized with dread that he was hiding something else in that hand.

«I work with Muggle artifacts,» he said in a shaking voice, though it sounded oddly rehearsed. «I know how to-»

« _Expelliarmus_!» Lily cut him off, and the brick fell from the man's hand, revealing a small grey box with a black button on it strapped to his palm.

«Is that a detonator?» Riddle inquired, though they could both tell that it was.

Weasley nodded hurriedly. «To a bomb. Just let me go, I won't-»

«He's lying,» Riddle hissed, eyes narrow and focused on Weasley's.

Lily stared at him again, but judging by Weasley's flinch Riddle was right.

And then several things happened at once.

Weasley moved quickly, too quickly for her and Riddle to stop him though they both lunged at him, he slapped his hands together and in the next second a horrid, wailing siren was blaring at them from somewhere in his pockets. He flung Lily to the ground and jumped on Riddle, ripped the wand out of his hand and tried to get up again, only to have Riddle pull him down. The two rolled over struggling, once, twice, until the man got Riddle with a « _Diffindo_!» to the face. Riddle yelped, and Weasley boxed him in the throat.

Lily got up to her knees, mildly disoriented, and tried to locate her wand. Weasley got up too before Riddle could compose himself, and pointed his wand at her. She froze.

As did Weasley.

For one moment, the two of them stared at each other, both astonished by the turn of events: how the turntables. His hand was shaking, she noticed. His color and coefficient had to have changed - again.

«Mister Weasley…» she said over Riddle's muffled gasps, only to realize she should kept silent when the sound of her voice made the man's eye harden. He looked to have reached a decision, and Lily felt a sudden dread.

« _Incarcerous_ ,» he said twice, and tiny ropes shot out of his- Riddle's - wand, knotting themselves around them as though they were a pair of steaks, although Lily at least got to continue kneeling while Riddle was rendered awkwardly supine. He followed up with « _Accio_  wands,» and Lily watched in defeat as three wands, her own among them, neatly flew into his waiting hand. He then cleared away the brick debris with a scouring charm, of all things, cloaked himself, and stepped out into the free world.

Lily and Tom Riddle were left covered in ropes and mortar dust and shame.

And Lily no longer felt so sure about her choice of career.


	2. Destination Unknown

«Right, then,» Severus said, adjusting the Spectator slightly. It was the first time Lily saw one in action, and she watched it with interest. Golden, delicate and intricate with gears, levers, and a small glass container resting over one of its three feet, it looked like an old-fashioned Muggle ship navigation instrument had crossbred with the insides of a clock, though its symmetry was broken by the large and round glass lens at its top. Lily could see the room reflected on its pale blue surface, taking in everything. Severus pushed the highest of its three levers down, and its tiny gears started whirring. A twinkle flashed in the lens, and Lily knew it was recording more than her voice and appearance.

 

She looked away, discomforted. None of the other three seemed to pay it any mind.

 

«You can start talking now,» Severus said. His voice sounded oddly flat. The room they were in was clad entirely in metal, illuminated by magic and not a single specific source, though it seemed to swallow noise. It was like sitting inside a safe deposit box.

 

And Lily did, starting with the moment Weasley and Longbottom had appeared around the corner and describing the events that had occurred with as much relevant detail as she could. She paused several times to give Riddle and Skeeter the chance to add something, but they never did: to look at their stony faces one would think they were serving detention for having spoken in class.

 

As she spoke, she felt her eyes constantly drawn back to the Spectator’s lens. It had not moved, but she could feel it focus on her.

 

When she finished Severus nudged the Spectator slightly, so that it could watch him as well. It was time for the interrogation to begin.

 

He looked to the two enforcers first.

 

«Is there anything either one of you would like to add?» he asked, as was procedure, but did not bother waiting for an answer before he continued, zeroing in on Skeeter. «It seems as if you followed your orders and saw nothing out of the ordinary, apart from what miss Evans herself described. Is that correct?»

 

«Yes,» she confirmed in a monotone.

 

«Then it sounds like the only thing you need to improve is your reaction time. Things might have gone very differently had you not been taken out by an imperiused housewife!» he said, and the anger he’d been suppressing bled through to his voice towards the end of the sentence. Lily suppressed a grimace, though Skeeter did not seem fazed. If anything, something about her eyebrows told Lily that they wanted to rise insolently.

 

Severus still took a moment to let his words sink in with the woman, likely hoping for a humbled reaction. When Skeeter failed to give him one, he relented. «You’re dismissed,» he said through gritted teeth.

 

Skeeter nodded quietly, and Lily caught a glimpse of anger on her face as she got up. The second she released her chair, it crumpled to the floor in one fluid motion and was swallowed up, like an ice sculpture melting into a lake. Lily only barely stopped her jaw from dropping at the neat sight. 

 

Skeeter’s heels clacked hollowly against the floor as she walked out of the room, and Lily was once again struck by how muted the noise was, absorbed by the walls.

 

The door closed behind Skeeter, and without her presence and chair the room seemed larger and three people in it to be sitting even further apart, and the Spectator seemed to focus all the more keenly on the remaining three. She folded her hands in her lap to keep from fidgeting.

 

Severus took a moment to look down at his procedural form before looking back up at them, and when he looked back up he seemed to have suppressed some of his indignation. Lily felt apprehension coiling in her stomach anyway.

 

«Mister Riddle, what did you do after the explosion?» Severus began.

 

Riddle pressed his lips together. «Lockhart and I were both knocked off of our feet and I lost my wand. Lockhart was completely out of it, or at least he stopped moaning when I checked on him…» he raised his eyebrows at no one in particular, «I think about a full minute went by until I was on my feet again. I figured he’d gone _The Leaky Cauldron_ , so I took off in that direction. I came into Diagon Alley after about a minute, miss Evans already filled you in on that part…»

 

Severus nodded to himself. «Is there anything that either of you think you should have done differently?» he then asked.

 

Lily was afraid to answer that one.

 

She shot a look at Tom Riddle, but he had his eyes on the Spectator and did not seem to notice her. He’d cleaned up nicely, she noticed. When Severus had found and released them they had been a sorry sight indeed, tied up and covered in debris as they were, but he was the one who had also been in an explosion and had his cheek slashed open, so for him to have become more presentable than her in the hour Severus had given them as he gave his own report after bringing them back to the Auror Department was quite impressive.

 

But Severus had asked her a question, so she brought her mind back to the matter at hand. She could tell that there was something that came to his mind immediately, but she could not for the life of her think of anything. She chose to protect Skeeter and the exit, Apparated them away from the grenade, then for the scuffle with Weasley she was mostly reacting…

 

She looked back up at Severus. «No,» she said, in perhaps a quieter voice then she would have liked.

 

Severus narrowed his eyes. «How about neither one of you ever attempting to stun him?»

 

Lily’s eyes widened and she searched frantically for answers, but Riddle spoke before her, shifting his gaze to stare directly into Severus’. «It’s very difficult to aim while running, sir, more so aiming so as not to hit any Muggle explosives he might still be carrying while he’s throwing a live grenade at your supervisor,» he said, adding a pleasant smile at the end.

 

Snape reddened in anger, while Lily paled at the thought of the man blowing up in front of her, because of her. «I’m ashamed to say that detonating any of his bombs didn’t occur to me, I had different reasons,» she said before Snape could say anything to Riddle. «The shock of mrs Longbottom not being a criminal caught me off guard at first, then there was the grenade… and I confess that after mister Riddle had blocked the portal and mrs Longbottom was unconscious I thought we had him.»

 

It probably spoke volumes of Severus’ high esteem of her that he had nothing snide to say about that last bit, though his tone was rather terse when he continued. «And when you realized he was still armed?»

 

_Why, we panicked_ , she thought, and looked to Riddle again, hoping he had a better answer. He didn’t. It fell to Lily to speak. «At first I didn’t want to make any sudden moves, but when Weasley went for it… I thought he was about to blow us all up.»

 

«And it did not occur to either one of you that _magic_ might help more against getting blown up than… what, grabbing the bomb?» Oh, there he was, the snide Severus she remembered from Hogwarts. He had never been snide to her, though. She sunk a little in her chair. Next to her, Riddle stiffened. «Or the man’s arm?»

 

«Sir, he did not-» Riddle started, but Severus cut him off.

 

«What, calmly let himself be arrested? After he’d detonated two bombs in _Diagon Alley_?» Severus’ voice was rising again.

 

«It was-» Lily tried, but Severus cut her off as well.

 

«He tried to kill six people in less than ten minutes, it’s a _miracle_ he did not succeed even once, and now he’s on the loose because the two of you thought you had it under control, forgot about your wands, and were distracted by a _loud noise_ ,» Severus got up off his chair and started pacing, stressing each mistake with angry gestures as he listed them, procedure and Spectator both apparently forgotten. Pausing only for breath, he continued, «And that’s not to mention the _massive_ destruction of public property in a very public place, most of which YOU caused,» he whirled around to point furiously to Riddle, «which I’ll now have to explain to McGonagall, who’ll have to wrangle repair funds out of the Treasury, and this is all not to mention the headache Communications is going to have!»

 

Tom Riddle had zoned out, she realized. And he wasn’t being discreet about it either, his facial expression resembled that of a parent waiting for their toddler to run out of steam as it throws a tantrum. As she watched, he let out a small sigh and slumped a little in his chair.

 

Severus was too caught up in his rant to notice as he paused for another few seconds to breathe. «You may have thought you were acting reasonably, but at every turn you both made the most arrogant, unthinking decisions you could have, and as a result,» he was getting riled up again, «not only did you ruin the mission, but this incompetence threatens to undermine ALBUS itself!»

 

Lily’s eyes widened as Severus’ words sank in. He was right. The public would never know, but Lily had always been of the opinion that trees do make sound when they fall, regardless of how desolate they are.

 

The Spectator’s lens rested heavily upon her.

 

Severus had stopped pacing. When he finally spoke, his voice was quiet: «Our job as law enforcers may be to catch criminals, but the intention behind that, our reason, method and justification, is ALBUS. Every life in Wizarding Britain lies in in ALBUS’ hands, and ALBUS in turn requires our absolute trust.» He paused to let the words sink in. When he continued, his voice had grown even quieter, even more intense. «Imagine if the public was to learn of this incident, and realize that we who are supposed to enforce ALBUS can make simple, arrogant, human mistakes!» His voice rose again towards the end. 

 

He was quiet again, either to make them squirm or to find fuel for more yelling.

 

Lily could only lower her head in acknowledgement of his words, thoroughly chastised.

 

He let them (well, Lily, as Riddle continued to look as if he was indulging a particularly difficult child) stew for a few moments.

 

«Do you have anything to say for yourselves?» he asked at last.

 

They did not.

 

«Then let me say it for you,» he said, and Lily almost let her jaw fall in dismay. There was more?

 

«Riddle,» he began. The man’s look of boredom slipped off his face immediately, replaced by a thoroughly polite and thoroughly fake look of attentiveness. «Li- Miss Evans mentioned that you knew who Weasley was and that he was lying. Correct?»

 

«Yes.»

 

«You used Legilimency, correct?»

 

(Lily’s ears sharpened at that. Riddle was a Legilimens? She suddenly remembered the moment she’d first made eye contact with the man and the feeling she’d had, as though something within her had been seized and examined— oh, the bastard.)

 

«Well, yes, but-» Riddle said, but was interrupted, causing a displeased frown to mar his .

 

«Then why did you not think to see if he was armed?»

 

«That’s not how Legilimency works, a quick glance like that-»

 

«Why didn’t you look further?»

 

Riddle opened his mouth to reply, but Lily had had enough and cut him off, «Sorry- perhaps I wasn’t entirely clear, it was barely a second after Riddle said he was lying that Weasley went for the detonator. Even if he had seen that it was harmless he’d have had no time to tell me, and-»

 

«And then he played a loud noise!» Severus said contemptuously.

 

«We really weren’t expecting it!» Lily yelled back, as she felt her own temper begin to rise in the face of Severus’ refusal to listen.

 

« _It doesn’t matter_ , had it been a bomb you would both have been killed!» He started pacing again. «You were worse than inattentive, you were _stupid_ and _rash_ and you have embarrassed your entire team!»

 

Severus drew in a breath to say even more, but Riddle interrupted them both. «Fine, we were rash and underestimated the deadly Muggle explosives he had strapped to himself. I am so glad that you, Auror Snape, are here to tell me how to do the job I have been doing since before you entered Hogwarts,» he said, and his tone was aggressively glib.

 

Severus reddened . «I was talking-» he began, but Riddle wouldn’t have it.

 

Gripping his armrests tightly enough to turn his knuckle white, the man leant forwards in his chair. «The reason I knew of Arthur Weasley,» he said quickly in a low, intense voice that was just as forceful as Severus’ scolding, if not more so, «is because Black and Skeeter are relentless gossips. According to them he’s a Muggle artifact enthusiast whose life revolves against two things, his hobby and impregnating his wife. The man is _infamous_ for his ineptitude as a wizard. There was no way he-»

 

Severus dove forwards and slammed his palms on the table right in front of Riddle, who to his credit didn’t even blink(Lily did). «Apparently there was!» he yelled.

 

Riddle only raised his eyebrows in turn, he managed to be more assertive than Severus’, and when he spoke Lily was again reminded of a weary parent. «We made a mistake,» he said, the words at odds with his deadpan tone. He did not mean a word of it. «it is regrettable, but it happens. To err is human. More, stewing about it isn’t going to get the man off the streets. So, please, tell us what you want us to say, what grandiose apology or penance, and then let us get back to our jobs so that we can catch him,» he finished, eyes boring into Severus, daring him to disagree.

 

And Severus wanted to, his face was uncharacteristically red and his lips twisted into a grimace, Lily could not recall seeing him look so livid, but no words came out The room was utterly silent but for the whirring of the Spectator’s gears as he searched for words in vain and glared at Riddle, who returned the look with a calm one of his own.

 

And then, like a beat not heard but known by everyone in the room, the moment came when his anger deflated, like it had run out of fuel. The tension in the room did not dissipate, but by some silent agreement between Riddle and Severus is came down to bearable levels.

 

Severus went back to his chair. It screeched loudly against the silence, Lily cringing at the noise, as he pulled it out and sat back down. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Riddle’s eyebrows lift in merriment. «I still can’t believe just how thoroughly you two managed to bungle it up, but fine,» Severus said. «Riddle, a percentage of the damages repair will be taken from your pension for blowing up part _The Leaky Cauldron_ ,» a tinge of bitterness colored his voice upon reminding himself that that had happened and he glared at Riddle, who gave an ever so tiny little impish smile in turn, «and in addition to your usual duties you are to help with anything - and I do mean anything - additional that might pop up. Any questions?»

 

Riddle smiled wryly. «I don’t suppose there’s a time limit to that last bit?»

 

Snape didn’t even dignify that with an answer. «Lily—» he began, getting a look from Riddle, «McGonagall gets the final word on what happens to you, but I believe you’re going to have to retake your Auror exam.»

 

Lily gasped, she couldn’t help it, and exclaimed, «But I passed that!»

 

«And then you proved yourself ill-prepared for the job!» he retorted, before softening. «I’m sorry,»he said, and judging by how his eyes flickered away from hers he truly was, «but it’s regulation.» Riddle’s eyes darted between the two of them, eyebrows high.

 

She nodded. «I understand.»

 

«McGonagall is probably going to add something to that,» he continued, giving her a contrite look.

 

She only nodded in response, as she did not quite trust herself to speak.

 

Heavy silence reigned for a few seconds, until Riddle leant forwards. «Was there anything else?» he inquired, and though his tone was respectful there was a taste of schadenfreude in it, as if there was something that amused him greatly. Lily wondered if she’d missed something.

 

«No,» Severus replied, paying no mind to Riddle’s strange mood. «This meeting is adjourned,» he added, and switched a lever on the Spectator. A vial filled with something silvery fell into his hands and lens closed, shut in by two thin golden leaves that definitely reminded Lily of eye lashes. The whirring stopped, and it became as dead as any and yet she continued to feel the weight of its gaze on her skin.

 

She wondered what sort of colors it had recorded on the three of them through Severus’ outburst. She also wondered if ALBUS was sentient enough to form opinions on their behavior, hers and Riddle’s in the field and Severus’ yelling. Or would that defeat the purpose of a neutral, all-forgiving entity? But if ALBUS did not care about their actions, there would have been no need for the Spectator’s recording… 

 

She shook her head to clear it.

 

Severus tapped his wand on the various papers before him, and they shifted neatly into a folder that he then tucked under his arm. Lily and Riddle took that as their cue, and got out of their chairs, which folded themselves into the floor like Skeeter’s had. As did the table melted too as soon as Severus was done with it, along with his own chair, finally leaving the Spectator on the floor as the sole object occupying the room, closed lens facing the doorway. It was as if no human had been in it.

 

The three walked out in silence.

 

* * *

 

The hallway was not what Lily had expected it to be.

 

Severus had Apparated her straight into the interrogation room, so it was the only part of the mysterious London Enforcement Division she had gotten to see thus far. It was covered in steel, everything metallic, even the Spectator seemed designed to be inhuman. It had reminded her of the interrogation room in all the Muggle movies she watched as a child, but that had only made it creepier, as the movies always have policemen watching the person of interest through a hidden window.

 

The hallway was a color explosion.

 

Soft red leaked coiled itself around dark hues of violet, using the walls, ceiling and floor as canvas, though they never bled into one another. They were bright, Lily knew that if she closed her eyes she would see impressions of their swirls play across her retina, and strangely potent, as if aching to slip out from the hallway and ensnare the three of them in slimy, colorful tendrils…

 

She stepped an inch closer to Severus.

 

Still, she appreciated the distraction, as it gave her a few seconds of walking and composing herself until Severus contacted McGonagall. If he was even going to. Come to think of it, she had no idea what happened next, if she were to meet with the head of the Auror Department personally or if McGonagall would sentence her from afar, if she even did. She had assumed the former, but could not think of a reason why someone as important as Auror McGonagall, the only Auror whose identity was known to the public, should need to personally debrief a disgraced newbie on the future of her career.

 

_If she had one_ , Lily thought to herself sullenly, and let her eyes zero in on a particular swirl that had taken the form of the letter «R». As she watched, the loop opened itself, making it a temporary «K» before the whole arrangement faded back into an indistinguishable swirl.

 

All too soon, they reached the end of the hallway. Riddle stepped back as Severus waved his wand at it. His eyes were caught on the walls too, she realized, and though there were no exciting swirls happening where he was looking he seemed to be getting something out of it, as his face had gone from its usual stoicism to a peculiar expressionlessness, as if just looking at that wall caused all emotion to bleed out from him.

 

His mind was someplace far away, she realized as she looked at him.

 

Whatever Severus had been doing with the door succeeded, as it slid into the wall, revealing the next room. Riddle and Lily snapped out of their respective thoughts, and they stepped into what Lily realized had to be the famed investigation room.

 

«I guess this is the investigation room,» she said aloud before she could stop herself.

 

It was disappointing.

 

She had not had any particular expectations, but she had taken for granted that it would look professional. The interrogation room did, for better or worse. This room was anything but: red and violet and moving in the corner of her eye like the hallway, it would have been visual gore because of that alone, but the room’s contents made it much worse. Glass and steel tables and tall wheeled chairs were clustered around in work stations, and on them sat anything from papers and intimidatingly intricate devices to abandoned food and clothing articles.

 

It seemed to scream _you will never be able to concentrate again!_ right at her.

 

Riddle ignored her statement and went straight for a door on the opposite end of the room, but Snape nodded in acknowledgement. He would likely have said more, but just then one of the chairs in Riddle’s path spun around to reveal a Gilderoy Lockhart sitting in it, legs crossed and with a look on his face like he was not in that ugly room at all, but welcoming them to his humble abode in front of a large, crackling fireplace, aged firewhisky in hand and a thick, dusty book lying open in his lap.

 

«Hello, gentlemen,» he said in a suave voice, before turning to Lily with a smile, «my lady.»

 

Severus and what little she could see of Riddle’s face looked like they had been confronted with a baby in need of a diaper change.

 

«Why, that sure took a while, didn’t it?» Lockhart continued jovially, as though the three had been playing Quidditch. He got up off his chair and steered towards Riddle. «In trouble with the bosses, eh, Riddle?» he winked and tried to punch the man playfully in the shoulder, unfortunately missing as Riddle sidestepped him with a grace that spoke of years of practice. Lockhart let the gesture fizzle out by planting his hand on his hip instead. «Mistakes happen to the best, you know,» he yelled after Riddle’s disappearing back as the man walked across the room and shut the door behind him, before turning to Severus and Lily.

 

He gave Lily a dazzling grin. He was a very good-looking man, almost too much so, his smile looked exactly like it did on Marlene’s glossy cutouts. He could have been holding a magazine in front of his face. «It’s a shame I wasn’t there, you know, I’d have had him disarmed instantly.»

 

She blinked at him.

 

«I’m a very quick draw,» he continued, still smiling, and started walking towards her. «As a matter of fact I was working on a book on dueling when my coefficient went haywire,» he gave a quick, winning laugh and looked at her, as if he expected her to join, «so while I hesitate to call myself an expert I do think I have a certain expertise that you could-»

 

«Was there anything you wanted, Lockhart?» Severus interrupted through gritted teeth, and his tone made it sound like this was normal Lockhart behavior.

 

The man did not seem at all put out at the interruption. The nobly modest look slipped off of his face in an instant, to be replaced by another glittering smile. «Why, to say hello to our new Auror, our Lily of the Valley, of course,» he said, and extended his hand at Lily. He wiggled his fingers at her.

 

As if on autopilot, her hand rose to take his. «Pleas-,» she began, only to stop when he brought it to his lips and kissed it. 

 

«I’m Gilderoy Lockhart, but of course you already knew that. Say, did you know I was given Witch Weekly’s Most Charming Smile Award twice in a row? I imagine you must have, you would have been a teen then, yes?» Thankfully he did not wait for a response. Not so thankfully, he had yet to release her hand. She gave it a tug. His grip tightened. «We’re almost the same age, you know. Why, I was probably still in Hogwarts when you started. Which year did you say you were?»

 

«Same as me,» Severus interjected irritably. Lily gave another, harder tug, and her hand was freed. «Was there anything else you wanted, Lockhart?»

 

At last, Lockhart looked put out. He pouted, as if Severus had just told him he couldn’t have dessert. «I’m just making conversation, Severus, there’s no need—»

 

«Yes, there is, and that’s Snape to you,» Severus gritted out.

 

Lockhart looked like he wanted to protest some more, but it appeared even criminals fear the glower of Severus Snape, for he backed down and, making sure to sending several chairs spinning out of his way as he went with dramatic shoves of his arm, he strode out, using the same door Riddle had disappeared through.

 

«Well, he was… interesting,» Lily finally said, after the door had shut behind the man.

 

Severus snorted. «Lockhart’s delusional.» He went to sit down, and Lily followed his cue, drawing out a wheeled chair for herself, realizing only when she wheeled herself to place her elbow on its adjacent desk that it had to belong to a specific somebody, as it was littered with papers, quills, and a newspaper cutout of Lockhart smiling brilliantly. She inched away again.

 

«Why is he an enforcer, then?» she asked. The concept of enforcers boggled Lily enough as it was, someone like Lockhart qualifying was even more confounding.

 

«Well, he does sometimes gets these bizarre strokes of luck. Once Riddle was chasing this witch up eight storeys of an old Muggle office building while Black and I set up a trap for her, only to have her trip and fall right into Lockhart’s arms…» he trailed off. «Mostly it’s because recruiting Enforcers is easier said than done.»

 

Lily opened her mouth to ask why before she realized. «It ruins their chances of recovery,» she whispered. It was the same with Aurors: few people can devote their lives to crime and criminals without becoming ones themselves, and fewer still were willing to take the risk. Lily could only imagine the damage such a lifestyle could do to someone who was already a criminal.

 

Severus nodded. «And a large portion of those willing turn out to be useless. Refuse to make arrests, or they- wanted a change a scenery,» he explained, though for a moment it sounded like he’d been about to say something else. Lily raised her eyebrows slightly. «Either way we’re short on personnel.»

 

They were silent for a moment, him staring at the table and she staring around the room. It was sparse, she found, in spite of being messy Papers, instruments and half-finished snacks were everywhere, but there was little in the way of the personal knickknacks she was used to bringing to the library when she wanted to study, such as favorite pens or even cosmetics. So far as she could tell all the quills and ink bottles were identical, likely bought in bulk, and there was no trace of so much as a lip balm. Lockhart’s photo was an anomaly. She recalled Skeeter’s words about enforcers and possessions with a weird dread.

 

As she stared at it, Lockhart’s miniature black and white self winked suggestively at her. She looked away immediately.

 

«Would you like a tour?» Severus offered, breaking the silence. Lily felt an echo of their play dates when they were little: he’d always try to think of something when he felt they were too quiet, always try to entertain her, and the more pressured he felt the more generic his suggestions. Here was that same panicked awkwardness, and she wanted to smile at it.

 

But this was the present time, and her would-be smile died before it got to her lips. «Will I be needing it?» she asked.

 

He frowned at her. «What?»

 

«Not that I think I’ll fail the exam, but—»

 

Severus waved her off. «You won’t fail, and it’s mostly formality. You’ll still be working. Under supervision, of course, but you’re a newbie so you would have been anyway, though McGonagall might add something…» he trailed off.

 

«But I’m not losing my job?»

 

«Should you fail your exam you’ll just have to take it again,» he shrugged. «We’re _very_ short on personnel.»

 

«Yes, but—»

 

«We lose enough Aurors as it is to their coefficients. Just two months ago the head of the East Department became a criminal at 102, St. Mungo’s only released him last week and he’s still in the high 80’s…»

 

Lily wondered what Severus’ coefficient was.

 

Looking around, she became aware of the room’s colors changing. The violet went away entirely, while the red faded into pink. Yellow crept down from the ceiling: it was her hue, Lily realized. Calm with a lingering hint of apprehension.

 

Severus followed her gaze. «The wall is attuned to your mood. A way to alert us, should the stress become too much… personally I find it only makes it harder to concentrate.»

 

Lily grimaced at the thought of trying to catch a criminal with dark green assaulting her eyes. «I can imagine.»

 

Another moment of silence passed them by as Lily looked at the colors around her. The pink kept fading, but it never went away completely. She remembered Tom Riddle, and his dispassionate stare at the wall. He’d been looking at swirls of his own, then. She wondered what colors they had been, to get such a reaction, or lack thereof, from him.

 

She wondered what happened to those who did manage to get fired as Aurors. Were they allowed to keep their memories? The training program had never touched on that. Likely not, then. 

 

(She also wondered briefly what ALBUS would do if their obliviated self were to decide to become an Auror, which led to wondering if a particularly determined, but incompetent soul could waste their life following the same dream over and over.)

 

Severus was the one who finally broke the silence. «I’m sorry I went off on you in there,» he said.

 

«I’m sorry to have disappointed you,» she replied, and gave him a half-smile. She was happy to see him return it, until he grew somber again.

 

«It’s true that you could have done a little better, but I got carried away. I was worried. You almost got blown up,» he said, sounding sickened at the thought.

 

Lily laughed shakily. «I know, I was there. Well, then I Apparated away, but…» she trailed off. She had not given that moment much thought, there had been other matters that needed her attention first, but even so she supposed she was more perturbed at her own lack of alarm than genuinely shaken. Had those Anti-Apparition wards been wound any tighter she and Skeeter would have been dead or horrifically injured, and still it felt only as real to her as when the hero escapes an explosion in the movies.

 

«I think I was more scared when I thought I might lose my job,» she ended up saying, realizing the truth in the words as she spoke.

 

«Don’t be flippant.»

 

«I’m not flippant, I’m just saying, had I died I wouldn’t have had to worry about paying my rent… right, sorry, _that_ was flippant,» she said hurriedly before Severus could say anything.

 

«I think I’ll be putting you with Lockhart for the next few missions,» he said.

 

Lily did not know how Lockhart acted in missions, though she had difficulty picturing him sprinting after Weasley the way Riddle had. Severus’ sentiment was clear. «I’m careful, Severus, you don’t have to worry about me.»

 

He did not look convinced.

 

Again they were silent, and this time it was awkward. She let her gaze flicker about the room again, pausing slightly to study the gray robes littering some surfaces. Not much reverence for the workplace around here, then.

 

«Is there anything else we need to do here?» she said at last.

 

Severus shook his head no. «McGonagall will come by tomorrow, there’s still a bit of paperwork but— well, I could just put Riddle on it,» he decided, and Lily saw the beginnings of a smirk in one corner of his mouth. «Why?»

 

She shrugged with a shoulder, feigning nonchalance. «I was wondering if you wanted to go get a butterbeer. We’ve got some catching up to do.»

 

The corner of Severus’ mouth twitched. « _Three Broomsticks_?»

 

«It’s a date,» she grinned.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wish to explain as little as possible in Author’s Notes, better to tell the story in the story itself, but I’ll make an exception in this case so as not to make this story seem too outlandish, and hopefully to reassure you that my deviations from canon usually have their reasons: Severus’ reason for being so ignorant about Legilimency is that he is a 19-year-old who has yet to learn it. Remember that he was 35 when he taught Harry in canon as well as in a position where his continued survival depended on his abilities as an Occlumens. This Severus lacks that experience and is in need of a completely different skillset to succeed in his life, so he’s blank.
> 
> Comments are much appreciated, as is The Carnivorous Muffin on fanfiction dot net, who provided me with much needed advice, commentary and Blade Runner references. Without her we would not have had Lockhart’s glorious «Lily of the valley» line, among other things. I praise the Muffin.


	3. A Pot of Tea

The  _ Three Broomsticks _ was unusually crowded that day.

 

«I’ll find us a table,» Severus said as soon as they stepped inside, and Lily nodded: splitting up had been their strategy back when they were students too, back when going to the  _ Three Broomsticks _ meant braving two thirds of the student body all clamoring for a table for the sake of delicious butterbeer. It really was a shame that, not counting Honeydukes, Hogsmeade didn’t really have any other places to eat.

 

«Just a butterbeer,» Severus added over his shoulder as he made his way through the clutter of tables and chairs, looking faintly like the lone, decidedly unamused sober man trying to navigate a late night dance floor.

 

Lily nodded in return, not sure if he saw it but not about to holler after his disappearing back, and made her way towards the bar.

 

Thankfully, there were only two people in the line before her, but they appeared to be stuck in the throes of deciding whether they wanted vanilla or chocolate flavored éclairs. Lily resisted the urge to sigh loudly, and scanned the crowd for familiar faces as she waited. No luck: for whatever reason the place appeared to be filled with a disproportionate amount of Quidditch fans, to the point where she had to wonder if there had been a game recently, but apart from that she wasn’t even sure who among the bar’s patrons were students at Hogwarts and who weren’t.

 

Finally, the agonized couple ahead of her made up their minds (one of each, then share them). The barmaid registered the witch’s coefficient at a yellow 24, and then it was Lily’s turn.

 

«Two butterbeers and a waffle,» she ordered.

 

The barmaid, whose name Lily was fairly certain was Rosmerta, disappeared into the bathroom. Although, she couldn’t help but wonder if it really was Rosmerta, as it was such an over-the-top designated barmaid name that she feared she’d just made it up considering the noise level the last time the woman had introduced herself. Either way, the woman believed to be Rosmerta reappeared balancing the tray in her hands. Behind her, on the still-swinging door, hung a portrait of Albus Dumbledore, smiling warmly down at Lily through half-moon spectacles and an immense chestnut red beard.

 

«That’s five sickles and four knuts.  _ Peccatamostra _ ,» the barmaid said, measuring Lily as she rifled through her wallet. Yellow 4. The woman eyes widened, and Lily shrugged slightly in turn. «I know, it somehow got lower.»

 

Picking up the tray, she then went to find Severus.

 

It appeared they’d been lucky, as he had managed to find them a table by the window. Lily smiled in approval as she sat down. «Nice table,» she said, holding out the tray so he could grab his butterbeer.

 

«Yes, I thought so,» he agreed.

 

Companionable silence reigned as she nibbled on her waffle and he sipped his drink, as though this really was just another Hogsmeade outing after a long week of studying and it hadn’t been over a year since they had last seen each other.

 

She wondered why she’d let it become that long.

 

It wasn’t that they used to see each other constantly, Lily spent most of her time with Mary and Marlene, increasingly so as the years went on, but Severus and Lily would sit together without fail when one or both was facing particularly daunting homework, and Hogsmeade trips just didn’t feel complete without grabbing a butterbeer together. He was always in the peripheral, passing by her in the hallways and nodding from his table in the Great Hall, a familiar presence she could grab by the arm for a chat or a library session whenever she liked.

 

In a way, she thought, things hadn’t really changed between them when they left the Muggle suburbia and began attending Hogwarts.

 

She considered him one of the best friends she had, easy.

 

How, then, had she let an entire year fly by without so much as a floo call?

 

(And, had they not made the same career choice independently of each other and then gotten into the same division, how much time would have passed until they met again?)

 

She’d like to blame the complete change of pace that she found herself in when she was no longer in a boarding school, or else the fact that she had had so much to do, but the truth was that she hadn’t given it conscious thought. For as long as she’d known him, Severus had never been more than a few hundred meters away, she had missed him in the past year, a distant hollow feeling, but she had never moved that to the forefront of her mind and actually done anything about it. And, in spite of the fact that it does takes two to tango, she couldn’t help feeling that their accidental alienation was more on her than on him.

 

She wondered how he felt about it. He didn’t seem upset, or even to take note of this being their first sit-down since graduating. As it was, sitting there right opposite him with nothing to rest her eyes on but his face, she felt at perfect ease, like no time had passed at all. 

 

Perhaps that was the magic of childhood friends.

 

She tilted her head and looked at him, really looked at him. Up close and with no one trying to blow her up she could see now that he had lost some of the baby fat in the past year. His hair, stiff and greasy as ever, was longer, almost reaching down to his shoulders, and she could see the beginnings of the wrinkles that are born of frowning too much on his brow.

 

The change was not extreme, but though she knew he wouldn’t appreciate it, she couldn’t help feeling a stab of concern. She pressed her lips together, suddenly unsure of where to start a conversation.

 

Perhaps he’d been seized by the same awkwardness, because in the next moment he blurted, «Why would you do this?»

 

She blinked at him in surprise. «Do what?»

 

He picked up his wand and cast some nonverbal spell, she figured one to keep people from listening in. «Become an Auror,» he said after a second.

 

Lily frowned. «Oh,» she said, and brought her hands to warm themselves around the mug. It was a question she kept asking herself as well, she doubted she’d be able to give him a particularly satisfying answer. «I don’t know, I don’t have a set purpose, if that’s what you mean… mostly I think that it’s curiosity. ALBUS is, it’s intriguing… to say the least.» She shrugged slightly, letting her shoulders communicate her uncertainty for her.

 

Something flickered across Severus face, driving his eyebrows down into a frown and turning concern into disapproval. «So ALBUS is what, an itch you want to scratch?»

 

Lily stared, «What? No! No, it’s- it’s more that I don’t want to do anything else,» she said, slowly, weighing each word before saying it and still finding that it wasn’t quite right. She sighed in frustration. 

 

Severus raised an eyebrow and waited for her to elaborate.

 

She folded her waffle together, smoothing the jam as evenly as she could as she continued, «Remember when we were children and you’d tell me about the Wizarding World?” she said, thinking back to those early childhood days in Spinner’s End where a beaming, proud Severus would tell her stories about a number stamped on your aura, with 100 acting as the border line between committing a crime or not. About different levels of stress sorted into a rainbow of different colors that could be interpreted and acted upon by the omniscient and benign ALBUS who watched over them all. “A world where there were no laws, because laws weren’t necessary? Because of the sacrifice made by a single man?»

 

Severus’ lips curled upwards into a small smile. «I remember having a hard time convincing you.»

 

At first she’d thought he was having her on, even when he brought her an edition of the  _ Daily Prophet _ with a feature article explaining «How to lower your coefficient by 10 points!».

 

She rolled her shoulders inward, her brow furrowing in thought as she glanced towards the ceiling, trying to find the right way to explain it. «I tried to imagine what it would be like, but I had too many questions for you to know all the answers, maybe even too many questions for there to be answers to any of them. I just couldn’t imagine it until I I came to the Wizarding World and saw it for myself, and even then…»

 

«Still not convinced?» Severus asked.

 

She pressed her lips together and nodded. «It’s like… the mindset, the frame of mind you have to be in to live like this… it requires absolute trust in ALBUS.»

 

A corner of Severus’ mouth quirked upwards at that.

 

In her mind, unsaid, she thought about the science fiction books she would devour as a child, about the pictures of seemingly perfect worlds they painted where the worms and the horrors were bubbling just beneath the surface. Where there seemed to be some sort of universal cosmic entity in place balancing the lever, making sure that mankind’s advances came at some terrible cost.

 

She felt disturbed that she had yet to discover anything amiss with ALBUS, for all intents and purposes it was exactly what Severus had told her it was all those years ago for better and for worse, and she could not help but feel that if she turned the right rock, looked at ALBUS from the right angle, she’d learn that Soylent Green is people…

 

This, she thought to herself, was why she needed to spend way less time with late night movie marathons and coffee and way more time outside in the sun, with people.

 

«But I’ve read everything I could, asked everyone who would listen to me ramble, and I still don’t know what ALBUS is,» she continued slowly, that endless frustration and curiosity mounting that had always kept her late in professor Flitwick’s office climbing to the surface again, «I don’t know what it measures in people, or how someone can fluctuate between being honest and a criminal from one week to the next… or why my own coefficient is so low, for that matter.»

 

«And becoming an Auror is supposed to help you figure that out?» he asked, and she appreciated the lack of skepticism in his tone. This, his ability to listen, was one of the things she liked most about him.

 

She pressed her lips together, took a sip of butterbeer while she wondered how to phrase her next point. «It’s the closest I can get to seeing ALBUS in practice,» she finally said.

 

«It’s also the one career in the Wizarding World that ruins lives.» he said, and she would have berated him for being melodramatic if he didn’t look perfectly serious.

 

«You really think that?» she asked.

 

Severus’ eyes lit up in anger and his mouth twisted into an angry grimace, «You almost got blown up  _ today _ , Lily, within the first five minutes of starting this job! If that doesn’t tell you how dangerous it can be I don’t know what can. And that’s not to mention your coefficient, Lily, it may be low now-»  

 

«-Famously low-» she interjected, thinking back to James, Sirius and Peter spending most of their sixth and seventh years trying to corrupt Evans. 

 

Severus paid no mind as his volume increased to a level that would have had the whole pub turning heads if he hadn’t cast privacy wards, letting go of his butterbeer so that his hand could fly through angry and accusing hand gestures, «but it will not stay that way- hell, even if it might, in what world is it worth the risk?» 

 

She was starting to feel not quite like a scolded child, but certainly talked down to and asked in a manner far calmer than she felt, «Why do you do it, then? If it’s so terrible?»

 

«Because-» Severus began before he cut himself off. The anger faded from his face, replaced by a certain hesitance, possibly even apprehension, as he lowered his voice to a quiet confession, «Lily, my coefficient has risen by 15 points in the past year. I’m at 70.»

 

Her eyes widened. «What?»

 

Severus nodded, looking aggrieved. «And I’m pretty sure I haven’t been yellow for months, never mind white.»

 

«I- you-» she was stunned. She took a few seconds to try and gather herself before she spoke again, «what are you going to do?» she asked.

 

Severus chuckled mirthlessly. «My therapist wants me to take a sabbatical to search my feelings for ALBUS, but- well. I’m pretty sure that would only increase my coefficient.»

 

From what she’d heard of the serene ALBUS getaways, where people went to get away from the stress of everyday life and hopefully lower their coefficients, it would indeed most likely serve to make Severus feel anything but harmonious.

 

Severus chuckled again, bitingly. Lily pressed her lips together at the sound of it. Resorting to self-deprecation was his go-to defense method, and it always made her feel like she was being shut out. «I’m sorry if I upset you, but-»

 

She shook her head no. «No, goodness, Sev, no, you should never have to worry about something stupid like upsetting me!» she paused, smiled, and reached over the table to take hold of his hand even when he stiffened at the contact, as he always had and probably always would. «I’m glad you told me, your trust means a lot, our friendship means a lot. I’m glad that hasn’t changed.»

 

Severus smiled wryly, and she felt her own grow triumphant at having cheered him up. «It’s been a while, hasn’t it?»

 

She pressed her lips together. «I’m sorry, time just slipped away from me… the past year has gone by so  _ quickly _ .»

 

A shadow went over his eyes. «Guess the same thing happened on my end,» he said quietly after a moment and picked up his butterbeer, letting her hand fall to the table.

 

She watched as he emptied it in a few big gulps. It felt oddly like a forbidding gesture, as if so long as the butterbeer was in place, shielding him, she could not make conversation.

 

She was relieved when he finally set it down.

 

«I still don’t think you should be an auror,» he stated, surprising her.

 

«Oh, for the love of- seriously, Severus? Seriously?»

 

«Yes, seriously,» he said, and leaned forwards over the table to fix her with his black eyes. Those eyes were always intense, you could say intensity was their modus operandi. It was one of the things about him that she’d grown used to over the years, even learned to appreciate, but now they grew darker, more focused. She felt pinned by them, like a butterfly to a collector’s tray.. «I’ve only been at it for a year, but I’ve already outlasted both of my contemporaries, and I have…this job is not good for people, and as your friend I am not going to shower you with false approval just because I’m scared of tension or- or awkwardness. I’m not going to- to  _ condone _ you walking down this path!» he shouted, cheeks flushed.

 

Breathless under the weight of his gaze and his words, she could only sit fixated in her chair and try to summon words. «I guess you don’t have to,» she finally said in a quiet voice.

 

He shook his head at her, and for a moment she could have sworn his eyes glistened. She felt her stomach tighten in turn, and now, sitting there and listening to his warning - his  _ plea _ \- and knowing that it wouldn’t change her mind, wouldn’t even budge from a decision she’d made before she’d even graduated, she felt worse than a scolded child, she felt like a fool, one who refused to listen to sound, well-intended advice simply because she had a childhood fixation. It was enough to make her wish she would change her mind, if only for his sake.

 

He said nothing, and finally, tentatively, she said, «Guess working together every day is going to be a bit awkward, huh.»

 

She was rewarded with an unhappy snort. «As much as I can make it,» he said. She hoped he didn’t mean that: being colleagues with her best friend was sort of a dream come true.

 

Speaking of… «I’m sure Lockhart will be happy to help you there.»

 

Severus rolled his eyes in exasperation. Another point to Lily, cheerer of depressed friends. «Half the time I can’t even believe he’s real.»

 

«Has he been an enforcer for long?» she wondered. The man couldn’t possibly be very experienced, but something about the man had seemed intrinsic to the auror headquarters, as though he’d always been there and always would be.  _ Unreal _ might just be a great term for the man.

 

«Almost two years, now,» Severus said. «He came in with a coefficient of 168 - the lower limit for someone to become an enforcer is 150 - although if someone becomes an enforcer and then dip below that they are allowed to stay - and he has only been creeping upwards since. I think it’s 230 now.»

 

Lily gaped at him. «230?» she whispered.

 

Severus grinned. «And he seems so harmless, I know. And in a way I think he is, he’s too incompetent to be a real threat to anyone. He’s just… he’s living in his own world. And this world happens to be one where laws and morals are falling away like rocks off a cliff until nothing remains but his narcissism.»

 

«Doesn’t he have a therapist?» she asked. Everyone was supposed to go to theirs at least twice a year, more often (though at their own bill) if they were having trouble with their coefficients. She’d assumed the same applied to enforcers: criminals, after all, had mandatory weekly sessions.

 

«Oh, they all do, unfortunately he spends those sessions yapping on about how successful he is and trying to seduce the therapist. Or, if it’s a male therapist, he’ll give them dating advice.»

 

«Sounds like he changes therapists a lot.» It wasn’t unheard of, but the general consensus was that stability leads to serenity leads to a low coefficient, and, following that line of thought, changes may be detrimental to one’s own wellbeing.

 

«No more than Riddle does.» Severus smirked, and from his expression she got a sense that however much he disliked Lockhart, he disliked Riddle more.

 

She frowned. What little she had seen of Riddle had made her curious about the man, or more specifically, she wondered how someone as put together and well-adjusted as he appeared to be could have an out of control coefficient. Still, she didn’t want to pry into the man’s affairs, and asking Severus felt like just that.

 

However, Severus took the decision out of her hands with his next words. «In a way it’s good that you’re here, because I’ve been trying to get him transferred. Not that I approve of your being here, of course-» he gave her a look, both knowing and half expecting her to interrupt, before continuing, «but the man is… not like the others.»

 

«You mean the other enforcers?»

 

Severus nodded. «They may all be criminals, but Black, Skeeter and Lockhart aren’t more than that either. If they were released into society tomorrow I’m sure they would make a headache for everyone, but I doubt they would do much worse than make us pull a few late nights. They, at least, were a part of society at one point. Riddle has never been.»

 

Lily’s frown deepened, and she felt her half-formed resolve to let Riddle maintain his privacy drown in curiosity. «What do you mean?» she asked. Was Riddle an immigrant?

 

«He’s a Muggleborn like you, for one thing. Unlike you, however, he was in an orphanage until he came to Hogwarts, and when he did he was found to have a coefficient of 235.»

 

Lily, who had made the mistake of taking a sip of her butterbeer, choked on it. «What?» she wheezed. «235? At  _ eleven _ ?»

 

Severus nodded. «Yes, his is the highest coefficient ever to be measured on a child. Needless to say, the allowance for minors to continue their education under supervision didn’t apply to him, and he was put into intense rehabilitation.»

 

His eyes were distant as he told the story, caught up in it, as if he’d lived it himself. Lily, for her part, felt distant too.

 

Before joining the Wizarding World, back when it was more of a concept than than reality, she had been afraid of what her coefficient would be. As Severus described it there was nothing criminals could actually do about it, and she had not been able to help fearing that her own coefficient might be something unmanageable, that the Sorting Ceremony would be her end. Her fear that she would be carted off to wherever criminal children went was not alleviated until the hat read violet 8 above her head, and even then she had never quite been able to shake it.

 

She could picture a young Tom Riddle walking up to the stool in front of everyone at the Great Hall, placing the Sorting Hat on his head and having his life be ruined in a matter of seconds by something he couldn’t control. 

 

And darkly, to her great shame, she was glad it hadn’t been her.

 

«Over the next five years he received two hours of therapy daily, was prescribed a meditative and physical exercise routine for another two, and of course the biweekly integration classes at Hogwarts for when he wasn’t chanting his coefficient into submission. 

 

They tried everything, therapy, exercise, all the tried and true methods touted by all the healers but his coefficient just kept rising until it was off the bloody charts. He hit 300 at fifteen. Fifteen, Lily.»

 

Severus leaned forwards, almost conspiratorially, «That’s not the worst of it, though, the worst was that he became like a disease. Not only are there records upon records of him destroying anything valuable in sight but his tutors, his therapists, their coefficients would crawl upwards inch by inch. Most would quit before the damage was done, but he’s turned more than one into a criminal, simply by talking to them on a weekly basis. And not one of them has ever recovered.»

 

Lily could only sit there in incredulity. «I can’t believe it,» she said, turning the memory of Tom Riddle over in her head. He had not seemed ordinary, that much was true, but she had ascribed that to charisma and intelligence, not what was starting to sound like criminal insanity.

 

He was starting, she realized, to sound like Hannibal Lecter, who for all that he had been captured gave the impression that he was only behind bars because he tolerated them, because life as the mouse doing experiments on gullible scientists was keeping him entertained. Who knew exactly what to say, and not just because he could read people (literally, in Riddle’s case, and she was still trying to gauge exactly how creepy that was) but because at some point along the way he had figured out how people worked, had seen the cheat sheet and now knew exactly where to apply pressure to make people think and feel the way he wanted them to.

 

A shiver ran up her spine, and she felt a stab of gratitude towards ALBUS in spite of herself that Riddle had been scouted before he would have been set loose upon the Wizarding World.

 

Severus nodded again. «His file is… long. You should probably read it yourself, but as it took me an entire weekend I’ll give you the long and short of it. 

 

After he hit 300 rehabilitation was... no longer a priority. I believe ALBUS decided that he was to be an enforcer, for his education went from preparing him for the day he became a free man to forging a soldier for the auror department. He was removed entirely from Hogwarts, and when he turned seventeen he was transferred to the auror department where he became an enforcer.

 

He was put in our division in London straight away, on what was then Minerva McGonagall’s team. I believe they knew each other from his integration classes, and she seems to be just about the only person he doesn’t itch to stab in the throat.

 

Moreover, unlike today’s pitiful performance, he is undeniably gifted, so much so that ALBUS decreed special allowances to be made in terms of his continued education. All enforcers are supposed to continue to improve themselves, that is, so that they may better serve ALBUS, but special resources were and continue to be pumped into Riddle. More, unlike some, Riddle takes full advantage and it is turning him into something formidable.»

 

Then, as if he wasn’t dishing on their terrifying sociopath colleague’s harrowing past, or maybe because of that, he reached over the table to snatch a heart from her waffle, shrugging apologetically when she raised her eyebrow at him. «Thief.» she stated, glad for the reprieve. He winked at her and smiled as he chewed, before he grew serious again.

 

«Ironic, isn’t it,» he said, «that in attempting to make the ultimate enforcer ALBUS has turned an ignorant child into something far worse than the department’s regular brand of chronic menaces.»

 

Whatever Lily had been planning to say next was forgotten, and she could only stare at her sole surviving waffle heart as she tried to reconcile the sardonic, enigmatic man from earlier that day with the human weapon Severus described. She hadn’t looked at him, not really, there had been too much going on: but his eyes stayed with her.

 

She thought back to the moment they had first made eye contact, when she’d stiffened and stopped under his gaze and some indiscernible inexplicable feeling or thought had passed between them. It hadn’t been pleasant moment, and she wondered what exactly he’d gotten out of her mind, but she hadn’t felt any genuine malice. What Severus was describing sounded more like an intelligent beast than a man, more than a simple wolf in sheep’s clothing but something infinitely more dangerous and cruel than even that. However, while she had seen something in Riddle in that moment, perhaps something dangerous, it had not been evil.

 

Severus too appeared to be lost in thought, though Lily could not begin to guess what he was thinking. She never had been able to, not even when they were children, and it often led to her being caught off guard by whatever he said next.

 

This, she discovered, was one of those times.

 

«Do you have a back-up wand?» he asked suddenly, startling her.

 

She stared at him for a moment as she tried to figure out what he meant, «…to replace the one I lost. Yes, as it happens, yes I do - well, we do. Marlene got herself a new one for her job at the apothecary, and we’ve been keeping her old one just in case. She’s my roommate,» she added at Severus’ puzzled expression, cringing internally. He’d missed so much.

 

If Severus was thinking the same thing he did not let on, settling for nodding instead. «That’s good,» he said.

 

«It works quite well with me, so this shouldn’t be a problem,» she continued.

 

Severus only nodded again. «And if we can’t get your old one back, the Department will reimburse you. Eventually.» another small, soft smile made its way to his lips as he looked at her, «They tend to take their sweet time when it comes to this kind of thing,» he said.

 

Lily grinned, and popped that last, neglected waffle heart into her mouth. «I won’t worry, then,» she said, and Severus shook his head slightly, still smiling.

 

By some mutually agreed upon cue that went deeper than the finished waffle it seemed their little lunch date was over then. Lily threw her bag over her shoulder, while Severus tied a scarf around his throat, and then they got up to leave.

 

«What’s your address?» Severus asked when they were out of the building, and Lily blinked at him. «For Apparition,» he added hurriedly.

 

She ahh-ed. «That’s not necessary, I was just going to use the Floo. Our flat’s chimney is directly connected to the network, it’s faster than you taking me to the street outside,» she said.

 

He looked slightly mortified. «Right- right. Well, I was just…»

 

«It’s just that Marlene insisted we get wired up, might as well use the connection now that I have to so it’s not a complete waste of galleons, otherwise-»

 

«I get it,» Severus said, and his smile was the desperate smile of someone wishing more than anything to escape his current situation.

 

«I’d love to have you over sometime,» Lily said anyway, in the hopes of salvaging what had somehow become a very awkward chat.

 

«Yes,» Severus nodded. «Sounds good. Yes.»

 

They stopped in front of Hogsmeade’s official floo chimney, where Lily exchanged a knut for a dosage of floo powder before turning back to him.

 

«See you around, then,» she said. «Tomorrow, in fact.»

 

He nodded. «Tomorrow, yes. See you,» he said, and before he could turn away, Lily had stepped up and given him a brief hug.

 

She stepped away and into the fireplace before he could say anything, turning only to smile and say «I have missed you, you know,» to him before green flames obscured his face and whisked her away into the hot, disorienting flurry that would take her home.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I intended to make this chapter about more things, but what’s not to love about almost four thousand words’ worth of Lily and Severus gossiping over butterbeer? There is action yet to come, I do so swear.
> 
> Big thanks again to The Carnivorous Muffin on Fanfiction net, a wonderful person and beta who is always happy to help a girl out.


	4. The Man in the Brown Suit

That afternoon Marlene came home to their shared little apartment to find Lily cross-legged on the carpeted floor surrounded by books, loose papers and more handwritten notes than most sane people ever wrote over the course of a lifetime and a sleeping ginger cat. The place was barely presentable at the best of times, for all that they both fought back against the never-ending invasion of household items finding their ways to new and stranger homes with all their might. This seemed the inevitable way of things when they were two young women sharing five rooms and most of their clothes, and they rather liked it that way, but this was like coming home to a disaster zone. 

 

«You know, studies would say that too much studying kills, except no one’s ever lived to publish any» she remarked as she shrugged out of her coat. «It’s tragic, really.»

 

Lily hmm-ed in return without bothering to look up.

 

Careful, so as not to step on any of the papers that Lily had scattered around, Marlene walked to stand behind Lily and read over her shoulder. « _ The Mutation and Decay of Ancient Celtic Wards and their Vulnerabilities: a Dissertation _ » she read aloud, and raised her eyebrows. «I thought you were finally in the field,» she remarked.

 

Lily looked up at last. Marlene was a thin, cheerful young woman with round cheeks and short blonde hair. Given half the chance she would be the dashing detective’s perky lady friend whose inquisitiveness gets her in trouble with the bad guy near the end of the story, and Lily couldn’t help but love the idea of herself as this dashing detective. They’d be like Holmes and Watson, gathering seemingly inconsequential evidence everyone else had ignored by day and catching rotten scoundrels by night. 

 

But this was real life, and Marlene was waiting for an answer as to why their apartment was a mess. Lily sighed unhappily. «I was, it didn’t go well. They’re making me retake my exam.»

 

Marlene frowned and stepped around to look her in the face, «But you just passed it, and you were brilliant! What happened?» she asked in disbelief.

 

Lily grimaced and shrank in on herself. «I don’t suppose you’ve heard anything about Diagon Alley today?» she asked quietly, keeping her eyes on the article before her.

 

Still, she could sense Marlene’s puzzled frown. «Yes, I was about to ask if you’d heard, actually,  _ The Leaky Cauldron _ just blew up! It’s mad, I wasn’t there or anything, but everyone’s- wait, what does that have to do with…» she trailed off as a terrible idea dawned upon her. «Lily, please tell me that wasn’t you,» she said slowly.

 

Lily couldn’t help smiling as she looked up at Marlene’s alarm, but after a second of leaving her friend in suspense she shook her head. «Relax, I didn’t blow up the Leaky Cauldron.»

 

«Well, that’s nice,» Marlene said, sounding offended that Lily would even let her think so in the first place.

 

«My colleague did,» Lily continued before she could get too relieved, and put her quill down. «Under my supervision,» she added.

 

«I- what? How?» Marlene asked, and came down to sit opposite Lily, careful not to disturb the still-comatose cat. «Wait, your supervision? But you’re new!» Before Lily could say anything, Marlene continued, «just how incompetent is this guy?»

 

Lily thought about Tom Riddle, about his cold, intelligent eyes and Severus’ warning words about the man, how he had made it sound like there was genuine evil in him, and a shudder shot up her spine.

 

Incompetent was not the word she’d use. 

 

What she said, and in a voice that was perhaps more terse than Marlene deserved, was, «You know I’m not allowed to tell anyone about what I do.»

 

Marlene threw her hands up in the air. «Oh come on, you already told me you blew up the  _ Cauldron _ ! Well, practically,» she amended when Lily gave her a look. «How is dishing on your incompetent arsonist colleague going to hurt anyone?»

 

Lily smiled apologetically. «I don’t make the rules, but they’re there for a reason.»  _ Such as not letting the people know that ALBUS employs and endangers criminals, _ she thought to herself.

 

«So, you’re seriously not going to tell me what happened today?»

 

Lily shook her head again. «I’m sorry, Marlene, but I really can’t.»

 

Marlene stared at her for another few seconds before surrendering. Her shoulders fell. «Well, I won’t be telling you about my thrilling adventures as a floo network assistant coordinator either, then,» she huffed, and Lily had to bite her lip to keep from smiling at the idea of Marlene committing to a lifestyle of not telling Lily everything about anything, «except I will, because you’re the only person who will listen to me gossip about my coworkers.»

 

«Mary listens too,» Lily pointed out.

 

«True, but you’re the one who doesn’t judge me for judging them. Not as much as she does, at any rate.»

 

Lily shrugged. «Fair enough,” and turned her attention back to her studies.

 

Marlene sat opposite her for a few moments, considering her. The cat purred pleasantly. Finally, after several minutes had passed, she shook her head, as if to clear it, and moved to get up. «I’ll go make us dinner, seeing as you’re clearly not going to,» she said, though with a smile. It was Lily’s turn to cook.

 

Lily grinned shamelessly at her retreating back. «You’re a great roommate,» she yelled, before returning her full attention to counteracting mutated warding systems.

 

* * *

 

The next morning found Lily on the street outside the Muggle end of  _ The Leaky Cauldron _ at eight o’clock and looking around herself. The place looked all too normal, if she hadn’t known that Riddle had only blown up the Diagon Alley end of the pub she would have thought the place had been fixed up already. The only sign that something was amiss was the lack of people. The pub was always open and on a morning like this it should have been filled with lighted oil lamps and housewives buzzing through to get their errands out of the way and older men and women enjoying the newspaper with a cuppa, but instead it was closed up and dark. It looked like its own ghost.

 

Lily wondered how it looked to someone standing in Diagon Alley, if the pub was a pitiful rubble for all to see or if the whole area had been closed off so people wouldn’t see this temporary chink in ALBUS’ armour.

 

After a few moments she went to stand outside  _ Hartford & Son Limited Jewelry _ ’s store window, where she stopped to look once more at the CCTV overlooking the street just beyond the storefront door, coincidentally covering the entrance to  _ The Leaky Cauldron _ as well.

 

She smiled to herself and raised her fist to knock.

 

«Not open yet!» shouted a voice from inside.

 

«I’m not a customer,» she shouted back. «I just wanted to ask if you would help me with something,» she said.

 

The other side of the door was silent for a few moments, and then she heard feet shuffling towards her. The door opened to reveal a thin, elderly man. Mr. Hartford, she could only presume. He frowned at her, not unfriendly but not overly helpful either. «Help with what?» he asked, stepping aside so she could enter the store. It was rather small, with dark wooden paneling making it look cozy but even smaller and one vitrine cabinet per wall showcasing the wares. Judging by the tools already laid out on the desk Lily guessed this particular jeweler was old school, the kind who would fit or fix any trinket in less than a minute for a client in need with a smile and a flourish.

 

«Um,» Lily began, thinking back on when she and Petunia were girls and had to lie for one reason or another. It always fell to Petunia to do the talking. It wasn’t because Petunia was a particularly good liar or because Lily couldn’t think of a reason why the television wasn’t working anymore, but because Lily would always be reduced to a blubbering (and woefully honest) mess when confronted with an unimpressed adult. The system, therefore, was that Lily stood in the background looking cute while Petunia tried to get them out of trouble. This had worked great until Lily received her Hogwarts letter and left her sister’s world. 

 

Since then, rather than finding a new partner-in-crime or learning how to lie on her own, Lily just painstakingly avoided lying at all.

 

ALBUS didn’t make this any easier either. She suspected that what might her infamously stable coefficient so low was that very aversion to lying. Getting comfortable lying might be that first step on that path that, even with a single step, was a point of no return for so many. Just the thought of damning herself helplessly like that filled Lily with dread. Even if she could change who she was, it just wasn’t a risk worth taking.

 

«It’s my boyfriend,» she began, hoping her genuine discomfort with lying to his face would make her more believable, «a friend of mine said she said she saw him around here yesterday right when he’d told me he was working late. She said he was with another girl,» she paused to see understanding and pity dawn on the man’s face. She felt like a scoundrel deceiving him like this, and wished he’d seen straight through her. Her voice was weaker when she continued, «she said they were looking at this shop window, and that you’ve got rings in there,» she finished miserably.

 

When she looked up at the man again, he looked as heartbroken as she was supposed to feel. Looking into his kind, sad eyes she felt like running out of the store altogether, he was being entirely too good to deserve to be lied to. «I am so sorry, my dear,» he said and put a wizened, fatherly hand on her shoulder, and that only made it worse.

 

She bit her lip and nodded shakily. «Thanks,» she muttered.

 

«If you want to know if he’s been in here-» the man began, but she shook her head.

 

«She said he was only outside. No- I was wondering - could I see the footage? From the CCTV?» seeing his expression, she hurried to add, «I know it’s a lot to ask, really I do, but I won’t tell anyone and that way I would know for sure. My friend’s only met him twice so I’m hoping she mistook him for someone else, or maybe it just looked like the other woman was with him.»

 

He let his hand fall from her shoulder, and shifted uncomfortably. «Look, miss, I’m sorry but I can’t just show that to anyone who walks in… isn’t it better if you just ask him yourself?»

 

Lily shook her head. «No way, if he didn’t do it he’ll be hurt that I didn’t believe in him, I can’t do that to him. And if he did-» she broke off again, blushing and not sure how to continue or even if she should. She felt like she was in a soap opera, only with even worse acting. It would never have worked if he wasn’t so sweet.

 

The man gave her a long look, which she returned as well as she could with pleading eyes, and then he threw an eye out the window. There was nobody outside, or even looking at the shop. Finally, he relented with a sigh. «Come on in, then, Miss» he said, indicating with a finger and showed her through a door behind the cash register.

 

She walked into a small, yet orderly office that was half toolshed, half stacked to the brim with accounting books, except for two screens on one wall that showed pixelated images of the inside of the store and the area just beyond the front door. Both had timestamps in the corners.

 

«When was it she said she saw him?»

 

«Around nine thirty,» Lily said, feeling guiltier than ever now that he was helping her. «In the morning,» she added. «He works… nights.» she said lamely, and felt her face flush.

 

He didn’t seem to notice her cover-up, focusing his attention on one of the monitors instead as he rewound the tape.

 

Soon the timestamp said  _ 09:28:47:12:09:79 _ . Lily leaned towards to the monitor, watching with rapt attention as he stopped rewinding and allowed the recorded events to unfold at they had, though in that jagged, skipping manner of surveillance footage.

 

She wondered if ALBUS’ eye worked similarly, if once observed it changed its subjects into off-color and stiff versions of themselves. Maybe it saw people as silhouettes colored by their emotional hue. She wasn’t sure if she found the idea of being an unrecognizable blob to ALBUS comforting or dehumanizing.

 

Before her the digits said it was nine-thirty exactly. She leaned even closer.

 

_ There _ .

 

At 09:30:58 Arthur Weasley stumbled into the view of Hartford’s CCTV, seemingly out of nowhere. Lily couldn’t suppress a small gasp, followed by a smile. She’d been right. Next to her, Hartford took her reaction as his cue and leaned in to look at him too.

 

The door to  _ The Leaky Cauldron _ , though invisible to the Muggle camera, had to be right behind Weasley. He seemed to realize as much after a second as he practically jumped to the right, out of sight of anyone in the bar but still within full view of the camera.

 

He stood there for a few seconds, hunched over and gasping for breath, and even through the grey and gritty view of the recording Lily thought he seemed pale and dishevelled. She thought his face seemed grayer than the ones around him, that had to be dust and dirt still clinging to him.

 

For all that he’d nearly killed four people and used the imperius on an innocent woman he did not look like a criminal at all in that moment, to Lily he just looked pitiful.

 

Then a young man passing by bumped into him, and Weasley’s mouth opened in a startled yelp or shout that Lily couldn’t hear. He looked around himself once more with crazed eyes before he disapparated.

 

Lily blinked.

 

On the little screen a single woman seemed startled by the sound he had to have made, but seeing nobody else react she soon resumed walking, while Mr. Hartford next to her did not seem to know what to think. «Tape must’ve skipped a second. Say, was that really your boyfriend?»

 

Lily looked up, suddenly remembering that she was Arthur Weasley’s heartbroken lady friend. «Um- yes. I guess my friend was wrong.»

 

The man gave her a dubious look. «Not that it’s any of my business, but even so, he didn’t look entirely right in the upstairs. Lovely young woman like yourself, I’m sure you could find somebody better.»

 

Lily nodded hurriedly. «He’s not so bad normally, he’s just… well, he’s a bit stressed these days, you know, the night shifts have been hard on him» she said, feeling her face flush for what had to be the third time in ten minutes.

 

And then she felt a new kind of guilt, for this was a real person she was spinning lies about, one whose life had been destroyed the day before and who was currently hiding someplace far away from his wife and many children. Making up a fake relationship with the man felt worse than disrespectful, it felt like she was mocking him. Her sole comfort was that the sooner he was caught, the sooner he could get help and even visits from his family.

 

The man nodded, though still frowning. «Could be your friend saw him with a woman elsewhere. I’m not the only jeweler around this block, or even on this street, if you want I could give the other guys a call and-»

 

Lily’s eyes widened, and she hurried to protest, «No, no, that’s really not necessary,» she said, but the man appeared to have made up his mind about her scumbag boyfriend.

 

«He’s a tad old for you anyway, girls like you shouldn’t waste your best years on men like him.»

 

«I won’t,» she said dutifully, wishing with all her heart that she could just leave. Surely the man had customers?

 

The man looked back up at the monitor, at the recorded image of strangers going about their day. Any one of them could be criminals, Lily thought, and no one, perhaps not even they, would know until it was too late, and this was the price they had to pay for freedom.

 

This had been her world until she was eleven, but it felt so distant, like she was peeking at someone else’s memories when she tried to remember what it was like. The second the Sorting Hat measured her she’d become a part of ALBUS, and from then on there had always been that lingering fear, that dreadful uncertainty, that in spite of her low coefficient she might one day see it rise and be shut away in Azkaban, and her life would be over.

 

Still, whenever she looked into a Muggle’s face she felt like she saw a certain calmness in their eyes, a sense of security that seemed to escape wizards. They only had each other to fear, and while she had perhaps been a bit sheltered as a little girl growing up in a safe neighborhood she had never felt that fear interfere with her life.

 

She wondered if they would give that up in exchange for a life without theft, rape or murder.

 

«Thank you so much, really, you’ve been so kind, and it’s so early- I’m really sorry about bothering you, you’ve been more than helpful,» she said, and the man shook his head.

 

«It’s no trouble, my dear girl, no trouble at all. In fact - hold on just a second for me, would you?» he said, and before Lily could say anything he’d slipped in behind the cash register, where he opened a drawer and started scrambling around for something in it. Lily felt her stomach fall in dread as she realized what he was doing, but he straightened triumphantly before she could say anything. «A-ha!» he exclaimed happily, pulling out something small. He turned to Lily and let a necklace with a little heart on a golden chain dangle from his fingers. She was too horrified to say anything, and could only shake her head mutely. «Please, take this, it’s the least I can do,» he said.

 

«No,» Lily protested as blood rushed to her face, «I can’t, I really can’t. Look - I’ll just - no, seriously, no, this is too much,» she begged, backing away from him all the while.

 

Unfortunately, he mistook her genuine horror for modesty, or else he was just the most generous person she’d met in her life, because he only shook his head, «It’s nothing, my dear, really nothing, just a reminder that there’s plenty other fish in the sea,» he said, before flushing terribly. «Not in that way! Lord, I didn’t mean-» he seemed even more terrified than she was.

 

«No, no, it’s fine!» she hurried to say. «I get it, it’s fine, really, thank you,» she rambled without realizing what she was saying.

 

Suddenly the necklace was in her hand, and the poor old man was looking terribly unsure and worried. Lily felt like a piece of machinery that was experiencing a system overload, because she did not know how to handle any of this, at all.

 

«You’ve - you’ve been so sweet, really, I did not expect you to be so helpful,» she stuttered, and felt shame and self-loathing fill her up again at having caused him so much distress, «I’m beyond grateful,» she said in the thinnest most pitiful voice of her life.

 

Fortunately, he seemed reassured by her words and gave a little smile. «It was really nothing, my dear,» he said, «And forgive me if I overstepped my boundaries when I told you to leave him, it just doesn’t sit quite right with me, what with a sweet thing like yourself being with someone like that,» he said, and she felt her blush, which had just been receding, come back at full force.

 

«No, no, it’s fine,» she said, and, for reasons unbeknownst to her brain, continued, «In fact, I think I’m going to break up with him. You were entirely right, I mean, yes, I can definitely do better. Find happiness,» she said, and grinned stiffly.

 

He broke into an answering grin at that. «I am so happy to hear that,» he said, entirely without even a trace of sarcasm or doubt in her honesty and good intentions. She felt like her integrity was being against sandpaper. He opened the store door for her. «Promise me you’ll take care,» he said.

 

She assured him that she would and, after a final word of thanks, flushed out into the open street. A wave of relief washed over her that she’d gotten out without getting caught and humiliated, but she dearly wished he hadn’t taken her so seriously. She hoped he’d forget about her soon.

 

She looked back through the window and met the old man’s eyes. He nodded and smiled sadly at her. She cringed.

 

* * *

 

As it turned out, apparating straight into an interrogation room and getting to the Auror department on her own were two very different things.

 

Clad in her Auror uniform, a brown robe over an orange shirt and a black skirt held together by a wide yellow belt, Lily became very conscious of the way others in the Ministry atrium were conscious of her. She could see and feel the way eyes flickered nervously towards her and then straight down to the floor and people moved out of her way.

 

She felt not unlike a dementor, a horrible physical reminder to normal people going about their day that just because crime was no longer a part of society it didn’t mean it couldn’t be in them, and one day she might come to take them away from their lives and loved ones. If she didn’t become a criminal herself first.

 

She walked around the atrium’s main attraction, a golden statue of Albus Dumbledore dressed in white marble and smiling benevolently, like the grandfather he never lived to become. At his feet and woven into his hair were eternally fresh lilies, meant as a tribute from grateful citizens. To Lily they looked like flowers on a grave.

 

She grabbed a  _ Prophet _ from the stand and used the elevator ride towards her department to look at its front page.

 

_ Criminal found in Diagon Alley, _ the front page said. She flipped to the given page number, and was met with a picture of Arthur Weasley in what had to be his work uniform blinking in confusion up at the camera, as if the photography had expected to hang on walls as “employee of the week” and wasn’t sure what to do with itself now that it was depicting a loathsome criminal. She felt a little sad for it. Below it a short and concise article detailed the time and place where the alarm had first been sounded and the criminal’s name and coefficient, emphasizing the Auror department’s speedy reaction time. It did not, she noted, admit that a Ministry representative had been the one to blow up  _ The Leaky Cauldron _ , merely saying that it, along with the building that fell on Riddle and Lockhart and a few bricks in the main street, had been damaged in the fight. It didn’t mention that the criminal had escaped either.

 

Lily felt a chill run down her back, and wondered just how often the  _ Prophet’s _ writings bent the truth this much. Had everything she ever read been a lie?

 

Not for the first time, she wished the wizarding world had other newspapers to resort to.

 

The elevator stopped, and a blue eye, ALBUS’ eye, appeared on its door. She looked into it, letting it do whatever it did to identify her.

 

(She wondered if it even did anything, or if this was a way to remind aurors that even they were not above ALBUS, that they needed his approval before so much as stepping into their own offices.)

 

She walked into the main room to find everybody else already there and at their desks, except for Lockhart, who was camped out at Skeeter’s. A dart of anxiety shot through her that she was now late on top of disgraced, in spite of her certainty that she wasn’t supposed to show until nine o’clock. She was a half hour early.

 

At the sight of her Severus got up out of his chair, and there was something about the way he did so, like he was the venerable host of a fine party getting up to greet the newest humble guest. The two of them might be the same age and equal in rank, but that mattered little to him, because he was very much trying to inhabit the role of chief on high when he said «Good, you’re here,» as if work hours meant nothing.

 

She nodded and opened her mouth, but he didn’t seem to notice, «We’re tracking him, I don’t know if you’re familiar with the process but everyone here has done it countless times, you can observe today. First, we-»

 

«Verify that we know where he was, and when?» Lily cut him off, parroting the text books the department had given her. «He stepped into the Muggle street outside The Leaky Cauldron and apparated from there, at exactly nine thirty-one yesterday morning,»

 

She became aware of everyone having stopped what they were doing to stare at her. «Sorry for interrupting,» she added, losing her oomph like an arrogant punctuated balloon.

 

With everyone’s eyes still on her Lily explained, «I went to a jeweler next to  _ The Leaky Cauldron _ this morning, they had a CCTV recording - that’s Muggle surveillance - showing Weasley outside the  _ Cauldron _ . He looked upset, and disapparated after a few moments.»

 

Severus looked astonished. Behind her, Lily heard one of the enforcers whistle.

 

«We’re trusting Muggle technology now?» said Bellatrix Black before Severus could say anything, and gave Lily a rather rotten look. She wasn’t sure what she’d done to deserve that.

 

«Do you have this recording?» asked Severus, ignoring Black.

 

Lily shook her head no. «The shopkeep allowed me to see it, but I couldn’t bring it with me. Isn’t my word enough?»

 

Snape frowned. «I’d still like to see it for myself. Right next to the  _ Cauldron _ , you said?»

 

In her mind she saw the kindly old man smiling dumbly into thin air, written off as senile by anyone looking at him, when chunks of his memory were spirited away for the convenience of wizards. She felt the pendant heavy in her pocket. She shook her head again. «That’s really not necessary, Severus, I can show you in a pensieve and save you the trouble.»

 

«Anyone can fool Muggle technology, Lily, but they would leave a trace. It’s a great learning opportunity for you anyway,» he said, as though he hadn’t grown up avoiding anything and everything even remotely Muggle, including on one memorable occasion a deck of cards. He reached out a hand for her, presumably for side-along apparition. She stepped back.

 

«It’s a great waste of time,» she said in a lowered voice, aware of the enforcers hanging on to every word. Skeeter and Riddle in particular looked delighted by their exchange, while Black seemed very skeptical and kept darting looks at Riddle. Lockhart appeared to have lost interest already, however, if his interest in something on Skeeter’s desk was something to go by. Lily ignored them and continued, «even if Weasley knew he was being recorded, and I dare you to name one pureblood wizard who even knows that Muggles can do that, why would he spend time faking a recording of himself disapparating? What could that possibly accomplish? He’s on the run, for christ’s sake!»

 

Severus pressed his lips together. «I see your point, Lily,» he said, «but we made a big enough mess yesterday, and we have to catch him before he makes another public appearance. And tampering with Muggle gadgets is Weasley’s profession, so pardon me for not trusting any electronics he’s been around,» he finished in a very reasonable voice that Lily wanted badly to argue with.

 

She just wasn’t sure  _ how _ to argue. She had expected him to listen to her, not dismiss everything she said as if she didn’t have a clue what she was doing, and now she found herself at a loss. For the first time since she’d first seen him in an Auror uniform she found herself wondering if it was really true that friends can’t work together.

 

Or, worse yet, perhaps it wasn’t the fact that they were childhood friends that was making him act so difficult with her, perhaps it was just him and he had always been like this. 

 

She looked into his face, which had lost the awkward sincerity that she once knew and loved and been replaced by a sneer, and she felt like she was only now seeing a petty vindictiveness that had always been as natural to him as being a potions-loving goof, if not more so.

 

And even if it wasn’t, he’d made it plenty clear that she’d lose all leverage if she came clean and told him her real reason for not wanting to go get the clip. He’d never get why protecting one old Muggle from a memory charm was a big deal, and she felt so very powerless against that simple fact.

 

Surprisingly, it was Riddle who came to her rescue. «I think we’re overestimating Weasley somewhat,» he said, and everyone turned to look at him. He wasn’t even pretending to not be listening, acting like he’d been a part of the conversation the whole time as he turned his chair away his desk to face them, «I’ve been looking over his records all morning. From what I can tell he’s, oh I don’t know, an incompetent amateur hobbyist. He picks apart model airplanes in the hopes of learning the physics behind Muggle flight, and then he casts reparo on the scattered remains and levitates the damn thing thinking he’s learned something very important,» the derision was clear in his voice, as if Weasley had done something to personally offend him, «There’s more. He collects Muggle British pounds, and then he sits there at his desk, holding a coin up to the light and tries to figure out if the Muggle goblins really value such a worthless metal or if the clever Muggles are hiding gold, copper or silver beneath the nickel exterior.»

 

«He’s not that smart,» he summarized after a second of everyone staring at him. Lily noticed Black and Lockhart were sporting identical frowns at the currency anecdote, apparently not seeing the problem with it.

 

She tried to keep the surprise off of her face that he’d spoken up for her. He wasn’t looking at her, though, he had his eyes focused on Severus’ in some unspoken challenge, and Severus was glaring right back at him. Still, it was nice of him. 

 

(Behind him she saw the wall lighten a little, from the pink of anxiety to orange. She hadn’t even realized her hue had darkened, but it made her that much more grateful to Riddle.)

 

It was possible he had just been voicing his opinion as an investigator on a case, but something about the man gave Lily the feeling that it was always personal.

 

Still, there was a sweet old man’s mental clarity to shield. She turned back to Severus, «And we’re on a tight schedule, like you said,» she added in her most diplomatic voice. He was a man of logic and reason, or he aspired to be, and tended to respond well to this kind of diplomacy. It was about the only antidote she knew to his terrible stubbornness.

 

He shook his head slightly, but her strategy seemed to be working. «Fine, for the sake of expediency. But when we’ve got him incarcerated I’ll have to go verify it.»

 

«Fine by me,» said Lily. She’d find a way to get the recording while keeping the shopkeep’s mind undamaged when the time came. «What else do we have?»

 

Snape sighed. «Nothing, I’m afraid. Riddle and I went to visit his wife yesterday after lunch, she was as shocked as you can imagine. Riddle was superfluous, really, that woman couldn’t lie if her children asked where babies come from. So we know he’s not at home, and she knows to report to us if he does show up.»

 

«Doesn’t he have any friends? Other family?»

 

Severus gave a half-smile. «Yes, well, that’s how Black, Lockhart and I will be spending our day. You stay and supervise Riddle and Skeeter as they gather more information…» Lily frowned at that but he went to his desk before she could say anything. He opened a drawer and picked up a bottle of liquid,  _ Veritaserum _ written on it in his own neat cursive. Her eyes widened at the size of it. Just how many people was he planning on interrogating?

 

«The regional division has a case of their own but should be arriving around noon to help us out. Hopefully I’ll be back by then, if not you’ll have to brief them on your own. Do you think you can do that? Oh, and they have a fresh recruit too,» he added.

 

_ He talks as if he’s been at it for a lifetime, not ten months _ , Lily thought to herself, but bit down her annoyance. She  _ was _ new at this, and it wasn’t like her performance the day before had been all that impressive. Besides, she would rather not test their friendship after they’d been out of touch for so long.

 

She just wished he would treat her more like a partner, not a child who’d wandered in on bring-your-daughter-day. Which she somehow doubted was something Aurors had.

 

«I’m sure I’ll be fine,» she replied flatly.

 

Severus nodded to himself. «Black, Lockhart,» he commanded, and they got out of their respective chairs and walked to stand next to him. He hesitated for a moment, and blurted «Good luck,» to Lily, like he’d been putting entirely too much thought into what to say. He then surprised her further by giving her a smile, and suddenly he was Sev again, her awkward treasure of a best friend. She felt the corners of her lips lift in a grin, but he disapparated with the two enforcers before he could see it.

 

The room felt empty without him in it.

 

Lily turned to look at the remaining two. Skeeter’s desk, she saw, was littered with the strange golden instruments used for mass surveillance. Riddle’s, by comparison, had almost disappeared under all the books and papers he’d piled on it, to the point where he’d had to commandeer a stray chair as a makeshift bookshelf.

 

They both watched her as she was watched them. She felt suddenly out of place in her strangely colored costume, their neat gray robes that made them seem far more serious and business-like. They certainly didn’t look like colleagues. Perhaps that was the intended purpose too, so that Aurors and enforcers could never forget their respective places.  

 

After a moment she began to feel like they were challenging her somehow, waiting to see if she would take action and lead them in the battle for peace for wizards or hide behind her desk for fear of the big, scary criminal enforcers.

 

Well, there was only one way to answer that question.

 

«Where do we start?» she asked.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Big thanks again to the greatest, albeit Carnivorous, Muffin of them all, who never tires of being the best beta I could ask for.


	5. The Murder at the Vicarage

When Lily was thirteen professor Slughorn put her in a study group with fifth year OWL students, all of whom were boys, already friends with each other and a little tired with school. The idea had been that Lily would learn from their experience and her enthusiasm and prodigiousness would in turn inspire them.

As it was, she ended up quietly doing their homework while they talked about Quidditch. They gave her free access to their collectively amassed treats, but as she was effectively walled off behind books and discomfort she never saw much of it.

Slughorn, of course, was very happy with the boys’ progress, so much so that he insisted they keep it up until the boys graduated, and so Lily’s Monday afternoons were dutifully sacrificed on the altar of not wanting to be difficult all the way through her fifth year.

Being thrust into her new job like this, with no directions except supervising two others when she didn’t even know enforcers existed until the day before, Lily felt strongly reminded of the awkwardness she’d felt then. If anything, she felt worse, because this was supposed to be her job and she had no idea how to do it.

Skeeter, somehow oblivious to Lily’s discomfort, shrugged in response to her question. «Well, Riddle and I already have our orders,» she said, confirming Lily’s fear that she was redundant, «I’m the one who operates these,» she explained, gesturing towards the instruments on her desk. Lily’s eyebrows rose.

«Without any training?» she asked, remembering the many late nights spent reading about them. Looking at them now she recognized them from illustrations and could recite their names and functions easily, but she had never actually seen any in real life, much less operated one. No one had, unless they were aurors. Or, as it turned out, enforcers. She wondered just how thin the barrier between auror and enforcer really was. She wished there was some manual that could neatly outline the similarities and differences between aurors and enforcers, preferably with color codes. Anything, really, so long as she didn’t have to navigate what she’d been lead to believe was a very straightforward job with subtle clues and personal intrigues.

«What can I say, I’m terrible in the field but I can operate these fairly well. Better than Gilderoy and Bella, at any rate,» Skeeter said, a little smugly.

Lily remembered how Severus had assigned Skeeter with her when they were chasing Weasley, before they knew he’d come charging straight towards them, and how easily Skeeter had been knocked out. She pondered briefly why the department would want people who were seemingly useless when it came to actually catching criminals, before she realized that they really were that desperate.

It made her wonder why Black, Skeeter and Lockhart had said yes in the first place.

«I don’t suppose you would mind showing me?» she asked, stepping closer to Skeeter’s desk. «I’ve never seen any of these in action,» she explained. The curiosity was genuine, but mostly she just wanted to get a clue about what her job entailed.

Skeeter seemed a little surprised, either by the admission or by Lily asking the question in the first place, but she composed herself quickly. Straightening her back a little, she let one manicured hand sweep over the table as she explained, «I don’t have everything here, just the ones for tracking, like the Needle and the Echoteller. And many of them work best together, these two for instance,» she picked up an ornate compass and what resembled a remote with an antenna and a large display showing three zeros and held both out for Lily to see.

«A Crimefinder and a CAC, a area criminality geiger,» Lily said, remembering them from her books. The Crimefinder compass would point to the nearest criminal and the area criminality geiger would show the highest coefficient in the area. It made sense that they would be used together.

Skeeter hummed, «I just call them the Needle and the Cake, but yes, that’s them. Useless around us, of course,» she smirked, and indeed the compass needle was pointed straight towards Skeeter. Lily wondered how she could be so blithe about that. Had she been an Enforcer for too long, or was she putting on airs? Lily didn’t know the woman, but for her recovery’s sake she hoped it was the latter.

Skeeter tapped her wand against the CAC to reset it. The ink of the three zeros faded into the display in swirling motions, like colors leaving the pencil when put it in water, only to return as three new, certain digits. Lily paled at the number.

«360,» Skeeter read aloud, and flinched. «Sorry, Riddle,» she said, in what was perhaps supposed to be a casual tone but that came out muted, far more sincere than anything else that had come out of her mouth that day.

Riddle didn’t seem to mind, though. If anything, he seemed amused as he looked up from his books, and a half-smile made its way to his lips, «I’m actually down a little from last week.» He looked up to catch Lily’s eye, and gave her a wink. «Have they told you I’m the proud record keeper of Britain’s highest coefficient?»

«Not in those words,» Lily replied quietly. His half-smile broke into a grin, as if she’d told him a funny joke. She felt weirdly mortified.

She’d thought Lockhart was just the village idiot, but Riddle and Skeeter too were starting to seem a little… off. She was starting to wonder if becoming an enforcer did something to a person’s sanity, or if madness was what made these people choose to become enforcers in the first place.

Skeeter continued while Riddle turned his attention back to his work, «This one,» she listed on, holding up a glass orb that shone a soft and pleasant yellow, «a Humorb, shows the general atmosphere in the room. The average emotional hue. It’s really only useful for dealing with crowds, although it’s really pretty… I can’t believe they’re not available to the public. They’d just be perfect for parties, you know?»

Lily nodded distantly, and took the Humorb from her. They were all calm, then. It matched her current wall as well, calm yellow with specs of orange swirling around. She walked around Skeeter to look at the other instruments. Almost all of the instruments were golden. Lily used to wonder if there was a functional reason behind it, that there was some alchemical reason for why they had to use precious metals, but now that she’d seen the auror offices it seemed far more likely that this was just another one of ALBUS’ aesthetic peculiarities. Like with the emotional hues, the system appeared to be greatly fond of using colors, even if they were garish and eye-watering. The enforcers’ uniforms stood out all the more for it, drab and grey as they were.

«The tools I’ll be using today are… more advanced, to say the least,» Skeeter said as Lily picked up a set of crime-revealing spectacles and put them on. They saw through the colors on the enchanted wall like an X-ray, revealing the plain dark stone underneath, and above Skeeter’s head a pale yellow 179 greeted her. Lily looked away immediately, feeling like she’d peeked on the woman in the shower, however silly that notion might be. Luckily Skeeter didn’t even seem to notice as she talked on, «these are all neat and all, but actual mass surveillance…» she picked up a large, sleek golden helmet where the entire front part was just a black visor and upended it, showing Lily its faintly glowing interior, «this one here is the most useful one, or my favorite at any rate. The Viewer,» she said.

Lily’s eyes widened. The Viewer was as close as any human could get to ALBUS. Without actually entering ALBUS’ consciousness, or the closest thing to a consciousness that ALBUS had, the wearer would fall into a trance, and from there they would see every interaction anyone had with ALBUS, be it measuring someone’s coefficient or other spells, like sinking into a lake of constant information. They would know exactly where to go if a criminal was detected.

«Isn’t it overwhelming?» she muttered, reaching out to feel its smooth exterior. It was warm, she noted with surprise, just a degree or so below her own body temperature. She wracked her brain to see if she could remember reading a reason for that in any of her books, or even a mention of it being hot, but came up empty-handed.

Skeeter nodded. «And hard to leave. Not everyone can operate it,» she said. Something in her tone was, while polite, a little clipped, and she gave Lily a look. After a few suddenly very silent seconds Lily took the hint.

«Guess I’d better let you get to it,» Lily said with a small smile, fighting the slight twinge of panic at the notion of being left with nothing to do. She found herself wanting to go home to her books and her cat, and she felt all the more bummed out for it. Being an auror wasn’t anything near what she’d thought it would be, not even close.

Skeeter smiled gratefully in return and nodded, and forced the helmet down over her curls. She twitched violently, as though the thing had eaten her head, and then fell over her desk, completely limp. Lily jumped and she ran to catch her, but she was too late.

And there she remained, completely immobile, like a corpse.

Lily stared at her, arms still outstretched, unable to dismiss the fear that Skeeter might not be alright in there, that ALBUS might just have opened its great, unknowable jaws and swallowed her whole.

Slowly, ever so slowly, she cradled her hands to her chest, unable to walk away from Skeeter but unwilling to touch her either, fearful that having let ALBUS within her, the woman might somehow be contagious... 

«She’s won’t be moving anytime soon.» Riddle said, breaking her out of her reverie.

Lily looked up, startled, and saw that she and Riddle were now alone. 

She wasn’t sure how she felt about that. Severus’ warning about the man had landed and she would be apprehensive around him, but all the same the curiosity about what could possibly be going through Riddle’s head to make him the way he was remained. Perhaps, as he was the worst ALBUS had ever measured, he could give her some sort of clarity on how exactly ALBUS passed its sentence.

After a second it occurred to her that she was seeing him as little better than an animal in a zoo, to be observed and experimented on, and being met with that kind of attitude might be part of the reason why his coefficient had never fallen. But it was so easy to forget herself, because in a world like ALBUS’ Britain criminals became otherworldly, shut away from everyone else and never seen or heard from again, unless they recovered. Talking to one was like talking to a unicorn.

She wondered if Severus had realized she’d end up with him be when he all but grounded her. She would have thought he’d do everything within his power to keep Riddle away from her after yesterday’s spiel, but that was apparently not the case.

She walked up to his desk. «She might find Weasley quickly,» she said, positioning herself just in front of his desk so he didn’t have to turn to look at her.

Riddle raised his eyes from the pamphlet he’d been flipping through, the latest of at least forty if the intimidating pile beneath it was anything to go by. On its cover Lily could read «Staying below 100 - your GUIDE to remaining a citizen!» written in large, friendly letters over a drawing of an outrageously happy family of seven, with a father and a heavily pregnant mother and five boys, all of whom had red cheeks, even redder hair, and wool sweaters with letters on that together spelled “PERFECT”. Her eyebrows went up before she could stop them.

Riddle followed her gaze and smiled thinly. «Apparently if I take fifteen minutes after every meal to think about how grateful I am to ALBUS and pamper myself with scented baths and manicures every week I might notice drastic changes,» he said. He drew his eyebrows together at her in a faux-quizzical expression. «Do you suppose I might get lucky if I asked the department for bath bombs?»

She pictured him walking up to Severus with that request, and couldn’t help smiling a little. «Nothing to lose, I suppose,» she said.

He nodded. «Weasley drew the cover for this pamphlet,» he said, surprising her a little. She hadn’t expected him to actually make conversation with her, «so here I am looking for clues in their sweaters. Let it never be said the Auror department isn’t thorough…»

Lily blinked. «Really?» she asked. She wasn’t that surprised at ALBUS, not really, considering how unforgiving the system tended to be, but she couldn’t believe it had so little manpower that one man had to sift through all the paperwork related to an escaped criminal on his own.

Riddle pointed to the chair that had almost disappeared under a mess of papers «Those, I’m afraid, are his and his wife’s tax reports for the past five years that I’ve had the great privilege of auditing all night.» he said in a mockery of a cheerful voice. Lily noticed that he was actually looking a little pale and drawn, and winced in sympathy.

Well, the man was clearly miserable, and it wasn’t like she had anything else to do. «I’ll help you out,» she decided, and summoned a chair. He gave her a wide-eyed look. «If you don’t mind,» she added when she realized that she had made herself at home at his desk without asking. She opened her mouth again to apologize when he continued,

«Don’t waste your time, I’m being thorough for the sake of being thorough. I’ve already been through anything that could have been useful. Skeeter is more likely to find him,» he said, though he scooted a little over with his chair to make room for her, picking up his coffee as he went and clutching it protectively to his chest. She could only imagine he’d be needing it.

She sat down and frowned at what he had said about Skeeter finding Weasley. «And that’s not likely?»

Riddle smiled in resignation. «Weasley is on the run. He may not be very bright, but even he would know to stay far away from other wizards. He’s most likely hiding alone, someplace he feels safe.»

«So it’s probably Severus who’ll find him?» Lily asked, picturing Severus falling upon a pitiful and bedraggled-looking Weasley hiding out in the woods by a dying bonfire. In her mind’s eye Severus looked more like a bird than he did an auror, with his tall, gangly body that was always drowning in clothes rather than dressed in them. She didn’t like admitting it to herself, but part of the reason why she’d been so surprised to learn that Severus had become an auror was because he just didn’t look the part, at all. It would be like Marlene joining the army, she just couldn’t see it.

A thoughtful look came over Riddle’s face as he tilted his head a little as he considered his reply, «Yes and no. He’ll interrogate people, just in case anybody knows anything, but it’s Lockhart and Black who’ll do the heavy searching and most likely the arrest. The credit still goes to him, though, of course,» he informed her.

Lily blinked at that. Getting credit for capturing Weasley hadn’t occurred to her, though she knew that exemplary service to ALBUS was often rewarded with honors and shoutouts, and aurors were no exception. She’d never cared about scoring any for herself and wouldn’t have cared who got credit for Weasley, if it wasn’t for her he wouldn’t have gotten away in the first place, but the thought that Severus might be securing it for himself was still not a pleasant one. Again that image of Severus arresting Weasley came to her, only this time there was an unattractive smirk on his face as he did so.

But then, she never would have suspected this if Riddle hadn’t brought it up, and Severus was one of the people dearest to her. This cynicism was uncalled for and wouldn’t do anyone any good.

She shook her head slightly, trying to shake it off. Riddle gave her a quizzical look, but she stayed on topic, «If none of us manage to catch him, how are we supposed to find him?» Any wizard with even the most basic abilities would be able to stay anywhere in Britain, looting nearby Muggle shops and homes for necessities, and they could move around faster than the aurors could track them down…

It was sobering to think that escaping ALBUS wasn’t impossible.

Riddle nodded to himself, maybe guessing her thoughts. «The longest anyone has ever evaded capture was four weeks, and she was far more intelligent than Weasley. They always slip up, or, more likely, we figure out where they’re hiding… nobody can hide forever, and they’ll either forget or underestimate just what it means to be living under ALBUS. In Madam Zabini’s case she’d sealed an abandoned house with the fidelius charm and made a random Muggle Secret Keeper. We were still able to pinpoint the general area and Crimefinders did the rest,» he said.

«But if she’d kept moving around, you might never have found her,» Lily said, wondering how exactly they’d been able to pinpoint the general area. She also, with a start, wondered if this meant ALBUS could break the fidelius.

Riddle nodded. «It’s why aurors are more closely watched than anyone. You know all the tricks.»

«So do you,» Lily pointed out.

He nodded, but didn’t say anything to that. He looked a little glum, and she realized her words had been far more depressing than she’d realized.

Lily picked up a pile of papers without seeing what was written on them. «I’ll go read these at my own desk, then,» she stated and stood up, remembering belatedly that she wasn’t entirely sure which desk was hers. There were a few that didn’t have anything on them, but she wasn’t sure if she was allowed to just up and take one of them.

Not for the first time she wished she had some kind of supervisor to tell her what to do. 

«It’s a waste of time,» he repeated, but there was a sense of amusement in his tone.

«But you said yourself there’s not much else to do,» she pointed out, «at least not until Severus returns. I don’t want to sit twiddling my thumbs.» She almost added especially after our performance yesterday, but held her tongue. He did not seem like he would appreciate reminders.

At this, he turned in his chair to face her and gave her a conspiratory look. «You don’t have to,» he said, and smiled so she could see his teeth.

He was just as attractive as Lockhart, she reflected, but in a very different way. Where Lockhart was shiny and dashing, like a brightly colored and glossy magazine cover, Riddle’s looks were classical. He was pretty, ridiculously so, with fine features, fair skin and long eyelashes. No, she’d actually say he was more attractive than Lockhart, but that might have been because Lockhart just didn’t seem like he’d ever catch enough game to get himself through the winter, let alone anybody else, while Riddle had that undefinable something about him that told her primitive parts that he was man enough to provide. Among other things.

Mostly, though, he was just really, startlingly pretty. She’d bet if ALBUS had been anything close to human it would have been tearing its auburn hair out that it couldn’t use his face for propaganda, because the man’s very being all but screamed competent perfection.

But enough of those thoughts. «Do you have anything else in mind?» she asked, a little warily, as there was a sharp glint in his eyes that she didn’t like.

He crossed his legs and settled a little back into his chair to make himself more comfortable and, still smiling a little coldly, replied, «Why, you’re the shiny new auror, miss Evans. We don’t get a lot of fresh blood around here, but when we do it’s… well, most are more boring than their career choice should allow. You, on the other hand…»

«Helped you blow up the Cauldron within five minutes of starting this job?» Lily asked drily, wanting to inch away from this unexpected attention that she felt fairly certain she did not want.

«Don’t steal the credit.» he frowned, as if genuinely concerned his hand in exploding the pub might get called into question.

«Please, you’re welcome to all of it,» she replied, thinking of the exam she still had to study for. Again.

«I’m the one who has to pay damages, remember, I think I have it already. The honor of losing Weasley is all yours, though, at least on paper.»

«Hooray,» she said hollowly.

«Consider it this way, I’m often told by my herd of shrinks that shared failure can be a great bonding experience, so at least your social life is off to a great start. This could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship,» he said, and she had to smile.

But for all that he was clearly joking she couldn’t help liking him. He was easy to talk to. The undercurrent of something sharp and analytical remained, and his mention of his shrinks had brought the ones he’d put in Azkaban just by talking to them to her mind, but all the same she found she enjoyed his company.

And really, his admission that she was the shiny new auror at least let her know where she stood with the guy, unlike a certain other dark-haired male.

«You know, funny thing, I have lots of friends just fine that I made without extensive property damage or letting criminals escape. So, if you think about it we could probably have gotten away with skipping that whole first part,» she said.

He shook his head dismissively, «You clearly have no appreciation for the unorthodox,» he said, though the ghost of a smile made its way across his face.

«I think it’s more that I have a healthy appreciation for not destroying things when I meet somebody new,» she said. His face went a little blank as he looked at her then, but she was distracted by thoughts of her sister. Knowing Petunia’s thoughts about her and ‘her kind’ and how Lily had basically joined a totalist cult she could never escape from, she’d probably be surprised this sort of madness wasn’t the case. She shoved her sister’s waspish, though not entirely unwarranted, disapproval back to the murky bottoms of her brain, where it belonged, «I just don’t think it’s a sound strategy,» she added, regretting it the next moment because she really shouldn’t be justifying herself to him.

«And yet here we are, chatting away like old friends,» he said.

She smiled again. There was no helping it. And it seemed like he was tempted to smile again too, if the look in his eyes was anything to go by. «I guess you’ve cracked the code, then,» she said after a moment, when it became clear that it had been her turn to say something.

He nodded, watching her. His eyes were sharper again now, and she sensed a question coming. More, she sensed that this was where the real conversation began, as if their banter had just been testing the waters for this first dive. She unwillingly tensed.

«Why were you so determined to keep Snape from the Muggle jeweler?» he asked.

Her eyes widened, and she felt a stab of apprehension go through her, as if the wrong answer might somehow land the kind old man in trouble. «Why do you ask?»

He leaned forwards a little. «If you were offended that he doubted you in front of everyone you could have let him go waste his time and maybe learn a lesson. Similarly if you were concerned about efficiency because he’s just going to do this same song and dance the next time you dare to use your own initiative. No, if I were to guess then it looks like you wanted to keep him away from the Muggle purely for the sake of keeping him away from the Muggle.» He paused, and a self-satisfied look of a deduction well executed colored his features, «you were protecting him.»

«Nice deduction,» she said flatly. He’d been breaking the ice with that initial banter, then, and now it was time to truly dive into the new auror. And he still looked so open and genuine, as if he’d just asked for her thoughts on the weather. It was a manipulative move, because it made her feel paranoid. But of course, he’d put on the manipulative charms a while before that… He was playing her for his own amusement’s sake. She blushed, against her best wishes not to. She liked him a little less now.

The way he’d made his case made her fairly certain he’d figured it out long ago, even if Severus hadn’t. There was no point in beating around the bush, playing whatever game he’d set up for the two of them. Lily, after all, was not one for games. «If you must know, » she said with as much pride as she could master, «It was because the man didn’t deserve it. He was very sweet and didn’t deserve getting memory charmed or dealing with any of its side effects. Not that anyone does, but…» she trailed off.

«But Snape would never appreciate that reason,» Riddle finished quietly, perhaps storing this tidbit about her away for later use. Nonetheless, something about him made her feel like her secret was safe with him. More, something about his tone made her feel like he understood, like he too saw memory charms for the violations that they were. She wasn’t sure what being a criminal did to his morals, but she found herself strangely hoping he didn’t. If the worst criminal in Britain could see the problem with playing with Muggle minds, what did it say about Severus that he couldn’t?

«No,» she replied in a quiet voice of her own. Few would, or that spell wouldn’t be applied so flippantly to any unlucky soul, Muggle or wizard, who inconvenienced the wrong wizard.

Riddle nodded thoughtfully. She could see pieces of the puzzle that was her fall into place in his mind, giving him his own Lily-in-a-nutshell template to work with. She supposed she was doing the same to him, if less deliberately, but still she felt a strong desire to interfere. If she seemed even half as green and out of her depths to him as she felt he was probably never going to take her seriously, and something about the man made her want his approval. She wanted to say something that made an impression on him, something that made him recognize that she wasn’t just some naive girl who’d gotten in over her head and look at her with respect.

It hit her then, what he had said about Severus. Was he right? Was Severus just going to undermine her again and again, publicly make her justify every little thing she did until she finally admitted defeat and left the job? 

Would he pat himself on the back then, when all was said and done and she was designing floral patterns for ladies’ robes, for a job well done in protecting her?

She hated that she couldn’t dismiss the idea.

Less than twenty-four hours had passed since they’d supposedly reconnected after their year apart and his dreadful shouting at her in the interrogation room, and cracks were already driving them apart again.

«How did you get to see those tapes?» Riddle asked after a second, as if it had only just occurred to him. Lily wasn’t so sure about that. Like with everything else, he’d probably been planning to ask this question the entire time. Somehow the man seemed to be gauging her for all the things she didn’t want to talk about.

Oh dear, he was probably going to grill her on every last, mortifying detail on that visit to the jeweller’s that Severus would never think to. 

The pendant sat heavy in her pocket, like a talisman of shame. 

«I asked nicely,» she said as evenly as she could, wondering if this was how murder suspects felt when they were asked if they had any enmity with the deceased. «What about you?» she followed quickly, before he could ask her anything else.

His look of certainty slipped and he stared at her in bewilderment. «What about me?»

«Why did you stand up for me, I mean. You didn’t have to,» she explained, cheeks reddening again and almost stumbling over her own words, hoping she wasn’t too awkward. She had meant to leave him his random charities to himself for fear that he wouldn’t bother next time, like a cat that rubs itself against nearby legs but will never approach another human again if some fool tries to pick it up, but, well, he asked personal questions first.

And she was desperate to forget all about the horrible lie she’d told that poor Mr. Hartford.

For a moment Riddle appeared to be thinking his answer over, maybe looking for the one he thought she’d want to hear, before he appeared to go with the one that was closest to the truth. «I just don’t like Snape.»

She blinked in astonishment at the admission and took in his entirely unabashed expression. «You were just being contrary?» she asked.

«I can see that you know him already,» he replied, and gave her a look, as if this was an accusation she might want to defend herself from, as if association with Severus was the new leper, «but you’ve clearly never worked with the man.»

Her mouth fell a little open at his bluntness. «I- that’s - I have nothing to say to that,» It was true that Severus’ behavior troubled her, and strictly speaking he’d made a fairly neutral statement, but it was still a very antagonistic, and in its own way disrespectful, thing to say. Still, her relationship with Severus was hardly any of Riddle’s business.

He raised his eyebrows. «That’s very loyal of you,» he muttered. She could see the thoughts flickering in his eyes. They had a pale blue color that on anyone else would probably have looked sickly, but on him they looked translucent, as if she could see straight through them and into his very soul.

Though she knew that legillimency had nothing to do with eye color she couldn’t help but find it appropriate that someone with his talent should have eyes that seemed like literal windows to the soul.

«What’s your coefficient?» he asked after a few moments had gone by. Lily hoped he hadn’t noticed her accidental gawking at him. What a first impression she was making! And to someone who didn’t know that she had actually been renowned for her disinterest in Hogwarts’ pretty boys.

She blinked. «What?» she blurted.

His eyes glinted. «It’s clearly below 100 or you’d be on my side of the fence, but I don’t know much beyond that either. You already know mine, and if you want you could look up my entire history,» his tone was just a bit too practiced and casual there, as if having no privacy at all was just life as usual, but even he couldn’t hide a twinge of bitterness at that. She felt a flare of shame for yesterday’s gossip session with Severus. «It’s only fair that I know a little more than your name and face.»

She bit her lip, hesitant to answer. And she could see him see her hesitance, the observant bastard. Was there anything he didn’t catch?

It wasn’t that she was embarrassed by her coefficient, but it was so uncommonly low that it tended to alienate her from others. It certainly made making friends that much more difficult, even Severus had acted funny around her after she first got measured. It was what she was known for back in Hogwarts, and she’d even had her fair share of nicknames because of it. It was because of this that she always felt like she was giving away intimate personal information and ruining her chances of being seen as a normal person when she told her coefficient to someone new.

And in this case she couldn’t help but feel that she’d be rubbing his nose in it, dangling the near perfect coefficient in front of someone who’d never known freedom as if it was the easiest thing in the world…

But he had asked her a direct question, and most people in the wizarding world knew their friends, colleagues and acquaintances’ coefficients. To deny him what he would inevitably find out about, one way or another, would just be getting their working relationship off on a distrustful foot.

She pointed her wand to herself. «Peccatamostra,» she said, and saw his eyes go up above her head where a number was gently floating.

She had not anticipated his reaction. Most people were surprised, yes, some even awed, she’d certainly been the cause of many a loud gasp. Riddle, however, was beyond surprised. «Three?!» he shouted, and leaned out of his chair as if to see if another number was hiding behind that first one. His hair rose a little with static electricity, but he didn’t seem to notice.

She felt color creep into her cheeks. «I’m on the other side of the fence,» she muttered. She was so far on the other side of the fence that she couldn’t even see where that bloody fence everyone kept talking about was.

He sank back into his chair and gave her a wild look. «Is this normal for you?» he asked incredulously.

She shrugged, hoping against her better knowledge that if she just acted like they were having a perfectly reasonable conversation it might turn into a perfectly reasonable conversation about a perfectly reasonable coefficient. «It fluctuates, mostly between two and eight.»

His shook his head, apparently too astonished to form a proper response. «What are you?» he said in total astonishment, as if she’d just confided in him that she was God.

His eyes zeroed in on hers and narrowed. She tensed as she realized what he was about to do, and looked away as fast as she could. «Don’t read my mind,» she said sharply.

«Forgive me, I forgot myself,» he said, and looked pointedly to the floor. She appreciated that gesture.

«It’s fine - well, no, it isn’t. Didn’t you read my mind yesterday?» she asked, thinking back to that look he’d given her when they first saw each other.

He pulled slightly at one corner of his lip. He seemed to have calmed from the shock of her coefficient, though a touch of apprehensiveness remained in the look he gave her. «I’d blame it on habit, because I do it quite a lot with opposition to throw them off their game, but I don’t think you’d fall for that.» His eyes glinted and his smirk grew wider as he left it at that, challenging her to see it on her own.

She didn’t need to be Sherlock to see what he was not-saying. «You were messing with me,» she stated flatly, feeling a specific sense of exasperation that she was starting to associate with him rise within. She’d spent all day thinking he’d sifted through who knew what in her brain for naught, then. And to think she’d thought that she’d be free of having her pigtails pulled by stupid boys when she graduated Hogwarts...

He gave her an approving smile that made his eyes crinkle and his demeanor soften, and she felt an answering smile spread across her own face, in spite of all her best efforts not to.

God help her, there was something about Tom Riddle that she liked.

«So what do you say, Lily Evans,» he began, and his tone was a little warmer than it had been before, as if she’d passed some sort of test, «do I live up to my daunting coefficient?»

She felt the smile fade from her lips as she considered his question. «Honestly, I feel like I’m talking to…» she almost said «somebody famous», but even though she’d known the man for less than a day she still had a strong feeling that his ego didn’t need outside bolstering, «… a criminal,» she finished lamely.

Improvisation was not her strongest suit.

His eyes widened, and he folded his arms, as if she were a great philosopher who had just said something very insightful about the state of the universe, «I wonder what it could be that makes you say that.» he mock pondered. For all that he was clearly making fun of her his delivery was so genuine that part of her wanted to ask «Really?» with all the sincerity in the world.

She blushed. «You know what I mean. I’ve only ever heard about criminals, I’ve seen one arrest but that wasn’t…» she pushed the memory of Remus aside, «until yesterday I’d never seen a real criminal, and now I’m having a conversation someone with a coefficient of 360!» she said heatedly, waving her hands a little, and realizing mid-wave that she was being very insensitive.

To his credit, Riddle didn’t seem offended, in fact he seemed to be considering her point. «I suppose it is a lot to take in,» he said, and he sounded more thoughtful than she’d expected.

She pressed her lips together. She’d expected him to be like Hannibal Lecter, absence of morality and deliberate evil on legs, but she just didn’t see it. If anything he seemed more like he very much wanted to be Hannibal Lecter, psychoanalysis and conversational traps and the whole shebang, but it was never the provocative cannibalism that made Lecter what he was. Lecter was Lecter because of his innate malice, his dismissal of everyone he met as butterflies to be pinned, making props of even Will Graham and Clarice Starling at the end of the day. Props that he cherished but fundamentally dismissed as art pieces meant to live according to his own aesthetic predilections. Riddle had much in common with him, but at the end of the day he lacked that full commitment to malevolence that made Lecter so inhuman and that Severus had told her to expect.

As it was, for all his tests and traps, she found she didn’t truly mind any of it. He didn’t dismiss her, for one thing, and that was enough to make her positively inclined towards him.

She wanted to be friends with him.

Again Severus’ condescending attitude floated back into her mind, because it couldn’t bode well for their relationship that she felt more at ease with an irredeemable criminal she’d known for less than a day than she did with her oldest friend, but she dismissed that thought as soon as it came for the unwelcome thing that it was.

If only she wasn’t bound by auror confidentiality not to let any civilians know anything that didn’t directly concern them, because Marlene would have delighted in friendship drama and sexy friendly criminals.

She ached to ask him what he thought of his coefficient, but she didn’t have to know the man to know that that would be of line.

He scooted a little, letting her move in so she could look at papers too, and they both turned to work. A companionable silence filled the room, even with Skeeter’s corpse-like form still slung over her desk, mixed with a slight giddiness on Lily’s end that she was finally, actually, and for the first time working as an auror. She bit down a small smile.

Unfortunately all good things come to an end, and in this case the end was a portkey appearing in the middle of the room along with four people.

And there, amidst those four and with hair messier than ever and a smile as bright as the presently pink walls around him, stood James Potter, clad in an Auror uniform. His eyes widened in shock when he recognized her, and the smile relaxed into a slack-jawed look for the moment it took the news to register in his brain. Then he lit up again.

«Evans!» he shouted, raising one arm to wave wildly at her. «Don’t tell me we’re colleagues!»

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So there you have it, Lily's got the worst colleagues. I don't, The Carnivorous Muffin of glory betas again. She also advices I let you know that these chapter titles aren't as crazy as they may seem, I actually put a lot of thought into them. That, and I painted myself into a corner when I decided I'd only use Agatha Christie books for chapter titles and now I can't back out. It'll pay off at some point, or so I pray, but for the moment I look like a crazy person. I hope no one is disappointed at the lack of murders happening in vicarages.
> 
> For what it's worth, if you know your Christie some of these chapter titles will spoil the fic a little.


	6. The Mysterious Affair at Styles

She hadn't seen Potter since they graduated Hogwarts, and hadn't given him much thought since then.

The Hogwarts chapter of her life was closed, and Potter had failed to give her a reason to consider him more than a Gryffindor whose raison d'être was being a Gryffindor. Picturing him as an adult, graduated and living in the real world with bills and work, felt a bit like a thought experiment.

Seeing him again outside of Hogwarts, and in an Auror uniform at that, was like running into Petunia in Hogsmeade: some worlds just shouldn't collide.

The walls around Lily bled from yellow to pink as her mood fell.

The other two men in the group, one young blond man with very bright and intent eyes and a dark-haired man who looked rather bored, went over to Skeeter's desk to look at the instruments still scattered on it. Lily felt a little uncomfortable at two strangers hovering over the woman when she was so vulnerable, but they didn't seem at all interested in Skeeter.

The woman in the group, a tall woman with dark hair pulled into a strict bun on top of her head, looked between Potter and Lily. She couldn't be much older than thirty, but something about the narrow set of her lips and the way her square glasses rested on her nose so she would always be squinting at the world around her gave Lily the feeling that she was one of those old ladies who only by a tragic misunderstanding had been placed in a younger body. "I take it you two already know each other." she said, and looked pointedly between them. «You are Lily Evans, correct?»

«Sure is!» James exclaimed with a wide grin before Lily could introduce herself. «Evans and I go way back. We went to Hogwarts together!»

Lily's eyes widened in horror and she opened her mouth to set the record straight, before they became official friends in everybody's eyes, but the woman was faster. «Well, that's good, you can work together, then."

Oh, no. No, no, no. Lily did not become an auror for this!

It wasn't even that she disliked Potter as much as he and Black very theatrically liked to claim, she just didn't see the point of him. His jokes were not funny and his charm nonexistent. She wouldn't have had a problem with him if he'd just left her alone in Hogwarts, but he always made a big deal out of her. Anything from witty things he heard her say to her hopelessly low coefficient always warranted some kind of comment, which Black would inevitably pick up on and then the two went off, making everything Lily said or was into something for their entertainment.

The worst was that they seemed to think she was in on the joke and that the three of them, five if Lupin and Pettigrew joined in, were having a good time together, but in truth she always felt like they were in some way mocking her.

The fact that she'd graduated as an auror only to get stuck with him again made her feel like the universe was playing some grand cosmic joke on her.

No matter where she goes or what she does, Lily Evans shall never escape James Potter and his god awful jokes.

"I'm Minerva McGonagall,» the woman said before Lily could sink any further into her pit of despair. She walked towards Lily in efficient strides, heels clacking coldly on the hard floor, and offered her hand for Lily to shake.

Lily forgot her Potter-crisis for a moment in favor of looking at the head and official spokesperson of the Auror Department. Lily couldn't believe she hadn't recognized her, but then, Lily was used to seeing blurry, black-and-white newspaper clippings of McGonagall smiling benignly and hearing her distorted voice announcing arrests over the radio. Hers was the face and voice of scripted, impersonal announcements on ALBUS' behalf.

Lily stood from her seat and took the offered hand in her own to shake it. «Lily Evans,» she said, taking in Minerva McGonagall's kind, composed face.

It was uncanny, how perfect she was for the part. She was authorative, benign and so very reassuring, like she'd been born to represent ALBUS.

Lily wondered if it was too late to correct the terrible idea that she and Potter were friends. It probably was. Unlike Caesar, Lily didn't even make it to the Senate before Brutus stabbed her in the back with unwanted friendship.

«It's a pleasure, Miss Evans,» McGonagall gave her a welcoming smile before continuing, «I'm sure your partner has filled you in. Do you have any questions?»

It took Lily a moment to realize McGonagall was talking about Severus, and another to try and remember if Severus had actually done that.

No, Severus had made her feel like incompetent garbage after she almost got killed, questioned and embarrassed her in front of everyone and certainly not welcomed her to the job and told her to come to him if she ever needed help.

What's my job?, she wanted to ask, but she was getting the feeling that it was the unspoken truth of the Auror department that Aurors didn't really do anything. Lily wasn't sure she wanted to be the one shining the spotlight on the massive elephant in the room.

She threw a thoughtful look at Riddle, who was still seated quietly beside her, watching the spectacle in front of him with a pleasantly curious expression. He must have noticed her looking, because he met her gaze with a thoughtful one of his own.

A small, but entirely too delighted smile curled around his lips, and he threw one look at Potter, then back at her. His eyebrows rose in a silent question, and she realized with some relief that Riddle had somehow seen straight through the preposterous lie that Lily and James had ever been, or ever would be a duo.

She flashed a quick, relieved smile back at him.

He was still intimidating, but the thought of asking him in her own time without an audience was a lot easier than the thought of asking Minerva McGonagall at the drop of a hat in front of everyone.

«I'm afraid I can't think of any at the moment,» she finally said, as nonchalantly as she could, trying not to let on just how out of her depth and desperate for guidance she really was.

McGonagall nodded with satisfaction. «Feel free to come to me if there's anything you need. The head auror's office will always be open for those who ask for help.» This was punctuated by yet another smile, one far kinder and more motherly than Lily would have expected from a woman as formidable as Minerva McGonagall.

Lily nodded, and sat back down.

It was striking, she thought, just how different McGonagall was from Severus. Different wasn't even the word for it. McGonagall was everything Severus should have been. She was gracious and professional, Lily had only known her for a few minutes but she already liked her. If McGonagall had been her partner instead of Severus, Lily's auror reality might actually have lived up to the dream.

It wasn't fair to Severus, but McGonagall being so welcoming made Lily even more upset with him. If a total stranger could show her basic courtesy, why couldn't he?

«I will,» Lily promised, though she made up her mind there and then that bothering McGonagall would be her last resort.

«Good,» McGonagall said, and turned to Riddle. «Hello, Tom,» she greeted with a smile. Lily blinked a little at the first name basis.

The Tom in Tom Riddle was like baking soda in scones, it's very much a part of the whole and its absence would be noted, but it was never meant to exist on its own. Riddle seemed to Lily to be the only acceptable thing to call him, if only because it fit him so well. She had a hard enough time picturing him being chummy with anyone, nevermind him being on a first name basis with the head of the Auror Department.

This was so much weirder than her and Potter's supposed friendship.

And speaking of, Potter somehow didn't look surprised at all. But then, he might not know who Riddle was.

«I was wondering when you were going to notice me,» Riddle replied lightly, but he gave McGonagall a fond smile. «Long time no see, Minerva.»

«Don't start with me, Tom, I see you far more than I do any of my other friends,» she retorted, like a schoolteacher admonishing a cheeky, yet charming student. Her posture had changed in a way Lily couldn't put her finger on, she looked more at ease. Riddle, too, seemed to have hit some sort of groove with her.

«Those poor friends must have forgotten what you look like.»

Lily was starting to wonder if she'd hit her head very hard when the Leaky Cauldron exploded. This was just too bizarre. She looked between them in astonishment, trying to make some sense out of the professional and wonderful Minerva McGonagall acting like she was best friends with Tom Riddle, Britain's worst criminal. They seemed closer than Lily and Severus, easily.

Riddle stole a look at Lily, and one corner of his mouth twitched upwards. Once again he seemed to know exactly what she was thinking.

McGonagall seemed to notice too and took mercy on Lily. «I had Mr. Snape's job before I was promoted, so Tom and I were partners,» she explained to Lily. «And we went to school together before that… I was part of the effort to socialize him,» she added, a little quieter, with a regretful look sent Riddle's way as if to apologize for bringing up his circumstances.

«I still can't believe that one actually worked. Although my coefficient did rise another thirty points that year, so I'm not sure if our friendship can really be considered a success...» Riddle said, although that last part was directed at Lily, his audience of the day.

Looking at Tom Riddle, Lily couldn't believe it either. Everything she'd seen and heard from him had made him seem like he would make a point of resisting any attempt to help him out of bitter pride. She could only imagine McGonagall had met with a social Berlin Wall in Hogwarts. And yet, here they were…

Once again, her thoughts circled back to Snape. Her relationship with him was different from Riddle and McGonagall's, and yet here they were, a boy and a girl who'd gone to school together and were delighted to work with each other.

Lily noticed Potter listening attentively and staring at Riddle with unabashed curiosity. He had heard of Riddle, then. It would have been nice not to be the object of Potter scrutiny for once, but the way he was looking at Riddle, like at any moment the enforcer might snap and light the room on fire while cackling like a cartoon villain, made her even more uncomfortable.

Why couldn't Potter just mind his own business?

Riddle's eyes followed Lily's. The look he gave Potter was a strange one. It wasn't challenging, it wasn't surprised, it certainly wasn't bashful either. If anything, she'd call it judgmental. Like Riddle had weighed Potter's soul against a feather, and found it wanting.

Yes, she did not think Riddle and Potter would get along very well.

Skeeter was still lying slumped over her desk. Lily wondered if Potter had even noticed her, or if he was too distracted by Riddle sitting quietly in his chair.

McGonagall noticed as well, and seemed to catch herself. «This is Tom Riddle, an enforcer,» she told Potter. «And those two,» she said to Lily and pointed to the two men standing next to Skeeter. One of them, the young man with straw-colored hair, had turned his attention away from gadgets in favor of staring intently at Riddle. There was something very familiar about his face, Lily felt sure she'd seen him before.

She was starting to wonder if half of wizarding Britain was secretly working as an auror.

Riddle, she noticed, was holding up remarkably well under the scrutiny of strangers. If anything, he seemed bored with it.

Lockhart must be frustrated to tears with a colleague who became the center of attention just by sitting there.

«-are Barty Crouch and Dorian Diggle, also enforcers,» McGonagall introduced.

It took Lily a second, but she remembered where she'd seen the blond. He'd been a Slytherin two years below her in Hogwarts. She had never learned his name, he'd been one of those faceless students that no one beyond their immediate clique ever take notice of. That being said, the intensity with which he was staring at Riddle made Lily wonder what he thought he was seeing.

Judging by Riddle's apparent indifference to the man, she would wager that Crouch, like Potter, saw only what he had already decided was there.

Both men ignored McGonagall's words and the implication that they should at least offer Lily a look.

«It's nice to meet you,» Lily ventured politely. She didn't get the feeling that a lot of people were polite to enforcers.

Diggle gave her an odd look, like Lily had just told him about her cat and offered to show him photos.

Neither of the two men said anything to acknowledge Lily.

«Do you have any leads on Mr Weasley?» McGonagall said to save the room's innocent bystanders from the very embarrassing aftermath of Lily sticking her foot into her mouth.

Lily wondered what the newcomers knew about the case, or if they knew anything at all. Beyond Lily and Riddle blowing up The Leaky Cauldron and letting Weasley run, that was.

«He was outside The Leaky Cauldron at nine-thirty and disapparated,» Lily offered up after a moment.

Riddle nodded, and threw a look at the ungodly mess of papers on his desk. «I wouldn't call it a lead,» he said,«but I've looked over his work, and these past few weeks he's been noticeably less productive. More, his coefficient increased dramatically in that same timespan,» he said.

McGonagall nodded to herself. Gone was Riddle's unlikely chum, replaced by the auror who'd been so good at her job that she received the highest honor a citizen of ALBUS could. «Something happened two weeks ago,» she said.

«Or started happening,» Riddle concurred. «But I haven't been able to find out what it was yet.»

McGonagall pinched her lips together as she turned that over in her head.«I see. Well, Potter, why don't you and Evans go interview his family again? Ask the wife if she can think of anything that might have upset him. Ask the children too, for that matter. He might have told them something he didn't tell her.»

«Great, sure thing!» Potter grinned, and moved towards Lily.

Lily froze in terror. She'd gone out of her way to avoid one-on-one time with Potter in Hogwarts, and she'd done so well, in spite of his many outrageous attempts to live the trapped-in-a-broom-closet or stuck-together-on-a-moving-staircase clichés with her.

He would try to make the most out of the situation, she just knew it.

«Wait a minute!» she exclaimed before she could stop herself.

Potter froze mid-step, and looked a little too confused to be offended. He frowned at her like she'd just told him his mother was a hamster and his father smelled like elderberries, and he had no idea what it meant but he knew that he didn't like it.

McGonagall frowned at her. «Pardon?»

It became dreadfully clear to Lily that even if she and Potter had been sworn enemies, McGonagall still wouldn't have let that get in the way of their duties. Lily's petty, lingering boarding school resements would do exactly nothing to sway McGonagall.

«Yes, what the hell, Evans?» Potter chimed in, his confusion giving way to an offended pout.

She felt herself flush, and tried to think of something to say beyond «Potter stinks». She'd never been good with improvising. She was relieved and almost surprised when a legitimate excuse came to her after a moment of scrambling.

«With all due respect,» she began, «neither of us really know anything about the Weasleys. Riddle's the one who has studied them, and he's a legillimens. He'll know if there's something they're not telling us.» She felt a sudden worry that he would be mad that she was bringing him into it, but this was an emergency. Potter would only be in the way. He was cocky and inappropriate, he had a whole repertoire of Quidditch-based sex jokes that he kept exposing Lily to in their last few years at Hogwarts, sometimes even rehashing old ones if he thought they were particularly good. She couldn't for the life of her picture him being contrite and professional to a grieving wife.

Riddle had a thrilled look on his face, like his favorite TV show was going down right in front of him and he couldn't miss a moment of it. His eyes went from Lily, to McGonagall, to Potter and back to Lily again, and his lips looked like they were aching to burst into the world's widest grin of schadenfreude.

He didn't seem to mind his sudden involvement in the tragic saga of Lily and James Potter's forced friendship at all.

McGonagall looked from her, to Riddle, and back again. She seemed a little disappointed. «I have to stay here and manage everyone…» she began, but trailed off. The softer woman Lily had seen earlier, the one who'd been happy to see her childhood friend again, was back.

It dawned on her that McGonagall and Riddle wanted to spend some time together.

And worse, judging by Riddle's complaints, they didn't get a lot of chances after McGonagall's promotion. After all, how often does the head of the Auror department get to slum it with a hardened criminal?

Shame and embarrassment welled up in Lily's stomach, and she blushed furiously red. «I'm sorry, I just meant-» that I really don't want to work with Potter, he's an ass. She cut herself off. «Potter and I will do great,» she finished lamely.

Lily was uncomfortably aware of just how red her face was. She should have kept her mouth shut.

«It's a good point,» Riddle said, surprising Lily. She stared at him in shock, and he shot her a quick smile before he continued his unexpected rescue, «Potter's as much a novice as Miss Evans. They'd both be out of their depths, especially if something were to happen.»

«Yes!» Lily agreed readily, overwhelmed with relief. «I can learn a lot, and we'll be done sooner.» She felt a flood of warmth for Tom Riddle, the beautiful soul who'd just saved her from involuntary bonding time with Mr. «Can I score in one of your three hoops?».

McGonagall managed to both deflate and straighten up, as she accepted defeat but returned to her professional head auror self. She nodded in agreement. «You're right. Tom, if you need to go change-»

«I own two outfits, Minerva, the other are my pajamas,» Riddle replied drily.

Lily thought he was joking, but the suddenly chagrined look on McGonagall's face made Lily wonder if Riddle had seriously spent his life alternating changing from his pajamas to his ugly work clothes and back again.

But when would an enforcer need anything else?

«Does anyone have the address or do we go by floo?» Potter asked nobody in particular, and waved his hand around the room as if to conduct whoever might have the address out of hiding.

Lily's face fell with the realization that Riddle's inclusion had never been said to mean Potter's exclusion. Rescue had never been an option, her knight in shining armor just made the noble sacrifice to hold her hand as the dragon ate them both. The color red, the color of sadness, floated across the wall, like a banner billowing in the wind, unseen and unheeded.

It had no right to look as pretty as it did.

Riddle, meanwhile, was looking at Potter like… well, like he looked at Severus.

Apparently, that was a very low step on the «Respected by Riddle» ladder indeed.

«I don't think that to floo right into a grieving household without warning is a very good idea,» Riddle said coldly. Lily had a feeling that McGonagall's presence was the only thing that kept him from saying worse.

Riddle then held up his hand, and a small piece of paper appeared neatly between his fingers, as if he'd whipped it out of his sleeve. His wand, or the wand the Department apparently had issued him, lay on the table, untouched. Lily raised her eyebrows in silent appraisal. «I have the address,» Riddle said.

He held it out to Lily, who frowned at it for a second before remembering that enforcers couldn't apparate. She plucked it from his fingers after a moment's hesitation.

She wondered if he really didn't know how to apparate, or if he just couldn't because of the rules. No one would ever have taught him how, but someone like Tom Riddle being unable to do something so normal as Apparition didn't seem right. Besides, she would have thought that getting out of a dangerous situation immediately would be a useful skill for enforcers.

The Auror Department made less sense by the hour.

She looked at the address written in a neat cursive. The Burrow, Ottery St Catchpole, Devon, West Country, England. No street names or numbers, only a homey and humble name to guide owls and teleporters to their destination. A painfully normal wizard home that up until the day before been a painfully normal wizard.

She felt a deep sadness for Arthur Weasley and his family. Whatever darkness had seized him had irrevocably changed their lives at a moment's notice, and they had nowhere to appeal for justice.

«Ready to go, Evans?» Potter asked, holding out his hand. Lily looked up and gave him a quick smile.

«Sure,» she said, and got up. Riddle followed suit, and she offered each man a hand. Riddle smiled a little to himself before accepting the offered right hand, and she was a little surprised to find that his hand was pleasantly warm.

She imagined he would take it as a great insult to his image, but his hand reminded her pleasantly of her grandmother's with the strangely reassuring way it dwarfed her own in its firm, warm grasp.

All three of them faced McGonagall, like knights awaiting the queen's blessing before riding off to slay the dragon. Then Lily spun on her heel and the faces and bright wall colors in the room, were drawn and distorted into the vortex with them before they, too, disappeared. Then there was only suffocating darkness pressing down on her like she was at the bottom of the ocean. The feeling of hands in her own and those nondescript words on stark paper were the only two things left in her world before the promise of her destination pulled her through to to the other end in a surge.

Then her feet were on steady ground again, and color fell back into place and revealed the world around her.

They were in an open field, with the grass around them stiff and pale in preparation for winter. A tall, crooked house towered before them. As she looked at it she could have sworn the whole thing was swaying very slightly in the wind. It was almost like something out of a cubist painting, all the house-parts were there, but they were wildly out of order and would never have stood tall in the real world if magic hadn't been supporting it.

The yard wasn't much better. Muggle and wizard artifacts lay strewn about side by side, most of them dissected into their individual parts or just left there broken and abandoned, as if Arthur Weasley's brain had vomited its interests right there and no one had bothered to clean it up. She could identify three different radio players just from where she was standing.

This, she realized, was exactly how Petunia thought all wizards lived.

Potter and Riddle stared in silence with her, as they all took in the visual tornado that was the Burrow.

Potter and Lily were on the same page, for once, as they tried and failed to take in just what the Burrow even was. She saw him open his mouth to say something, but words left him and he was left gaping at the place.

Riddle didn't look quite as surprised as Lily and Potter, he just looked very disapproving. His shoulders rose in a silent huff, and he shook his head. He'd been there the day before, but clearly that did little to soften the ocular punch in the face that they were currently looking at.

«Do we just waltz right in, then?» Potter finally said.

«That's the plan,» Lily answered, though she looked to Riddle. He looked a little surprised, but after a second he nodded in confirmation.

Without further ado, Potter started walking. He walked in long, confident strides, like the rough but charming cop in one of the TV shows Petunia pretended not to love, leaving Lily and Riddle in the dust.

If it had been just Lily and Potter alone she'd have had to run to catch up with him, like a female and redheaded Pettigrew. With Riddle there she could comfortably linger in the back while Potter charged ahead instead.

Riddle, it seemed, was going to be a great buffer.

Potter stabbed a finger out to point at a small, poorly maintained shed as they walked past it. «Wonder what's in there,» he shouted to the two behind him.

Lily gave Riddle a questioning look. «Do you-?» she began.

Riddle nodded. «I had a look yesterday. It's a workshop. I'm guessing that's where all these things,» he nudged a broken, rust-stained vinyl player with his foot, «once lived.»

Lily wondered how Mrs Weasley could stand it.

Potter got to the door first, and let his eyes sweep across the garden as he waited for the other two to catch up. «He's pretty cool, I'll give him that,» he said when Lily and Riddle caught up.

Lily blinked at him. For a second she thought he might be talking about Riddle, before she realized that he meant Weasley. «I'm sorry?»

Potter shrugged and looked skywards as he pondered his next words, «I mean, it's not something I'd ever bother with, but I've wondered, you know? They live their whole lives without magic or ALBUS. The Muggles, I mean. It's pretty horrifying to think about, but I get why someone might be curious about how they manage…»

He gave her a very expectant look, one that was trying very hard to not be expectant.

Lily wasn't quite sure how to respond. She had no idea where this was coming from, and more, he was looking at her like she was supposed to be impressed.

«I've never thought of it like that,» she offered after a long second.

Riddle's face was very blank as he looked at Potter, though his eyes might have been a little wider than usual. Like he was trying to convince himself Potter couldn't possibly be for real, in spite of the sad, undeniable proof to the contrary. Or maybe that was just Lily projecting.

She wished with every inch of her being that she hadn't been lumped in with Potter before she got a chance to prove herself.

Potter seeed happy enough with her answer, though, and gave her one of his wide, pleased grins. «It's so easy to just dismiss the Muggles.»

It was Lily's turn to look blank, while Riddle's blank look gave way to barely restrained mirth as Potter turned to knock firmly on the door. Lily cringed in advance.

«Aurors!» He yelled. A few seconds went by as the house remained closed and silent. He put his wand to his throat and yelled again, this time with his voice magnified, «Aurors! Open up!»

Riddle's looked positively delighted and incredulous at the same time. Lily suddenly wished he hadn't come after all, because Potter's every breath was embarrassing enough without Riddle there to witness it all.

«Potter, Mrs Weasley is very pregnant and just lost her husband-» Lily hissed, just as they heard footsteps approaching on the other side. Potter didn't spare her a glance.

The door swung open to reveal Arthur Weasley.

Lily felt like time came to a halt as they stared at him in total astonishment.

She half thought she was just seeing things, but no, Arthur Weasley was standing three feet away from her.

He looked dreadful, too scared and wretched to even want to be alive, and deflated at the sight of them.

As if, after hours of waiting, the executioner had entered the damned man's cell.

He opened his mouth to say something, but Riddle was impossibly fast. Riddle didn't even pull out a wand, one sharp, wordless gesture with his fingers was enough to summon thick, coiling ropes from thin air that wrapped around Weasley before he could get a word out. Weasley stood in shock for a moment, like an egg set to spin on a counter, wild eyes bulging in terror, before he fell to the floor with a heavy crash.

«Arthur!» A woman's voice screamed, and Lily saw Molly Weasley come running towards her husband.

«Don't move!» Riddle yelled, but Mrs Weasley ignored him, she only had eyes for her husband. She fell at his side and tore uselessly at his bonds.

Lily pointed her wand at the woman. « _Peccatamostra_ ,» she said. A purple 78 shone above Mrs Weasley's flame colored head.

«Huh,» said James, echoing all their thoughts.

A sudden certainty that something was very wrong dawned upon Lily.

Riddle, perhaps seized by that same feeling or perhaps just making his arrest, pointed his borrowed wand at the bound and helpless man.

Looking into Arthur Weasley's terrified, pleading eyes, Lily knew what ALBUS was going to show before Riddle even cast the spell.

« _Peccatamostra_.»

A bright red 57 appeared above Weasley's head. Below 100.

He wasn't a criminal.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apologies for the tardiness. If there are still two or three people out there hanging on, kudos to your wonderful souls. Personally, I think you have excellent taste.
> 
> Thanks again to my wonderful beta and consigliere, The Carnivorous Muffin.
> 
> No thanks to my godawful idea to make all my titles Christie-inspired. I refuse to give up, but man is it difficult


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